The World 

OF THE 

Unseen 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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Shelf ...Wl- 



L 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN 



THE 



WORLD OF THE UNSEEN 



AN ESSAY 

ON THE RELATION OF HIGHER SPACE 

TO THINGS ETERNAL 



BY 



ARTHUR WILLINK 



MACMILLAN AND CO. 

AND LONDON 
1893 

AH rights reserved 



i^S 



Copyright, 1893, 
By MACMILLAN AND CO. 



Norfajooti ^re03 : 

J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick 8c Smith. 

Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 



V 



CONTENTS 



1. Introductory . . . 

2. The Proposition 

3. The Higher Space, an Apology 

4. The Higher Space 

(i) The impossibility of representation 

(2) Where is the Higher Space? 

(3) Not at an infinite distance 

5. Lower Spaces .... 

(i) Space of One Direction 

(2) Space of Two Directions 

(3) Space of Three Directions . 

(4) The mysterious nature of Space 

6. The Fourth Direction 

7. The World of the Unseen - 

8. Concerning the Departed 

9. Concerning the Vision of the Risen 

Lord 

10. The Appearance of our Space to those 
IN Higher Space 



PAGE 
I 

II 
13 
15 
16 

17 

20 
21 
21 
21 

25 
32 

39 
49 

52 

80 
90 



VI CONTENTS 

PAGE 

11. The Ministry of the Angels . . 97 

12. So FAR THE Proposition has not proved 

unreasonable too 

13. Concerning the Omniscience of Al- 

mighty GOD 103 

14. Yet Higher Spaces 106 

15. Concerning the Omnipotence of GOD . iii 

16. Defending the use of Geometry in these 

SACRED connections II 6 

17. Our relation to the dwellers in the 

Higher Space ii8 

(i) Our appearance 118 

(2) Celestial bodies . . . . .123 

(3) Bodies of Extension . . . - "^33 

18. Our Higher Faculties or Higher Space 

Senses 142 

19. Concerning the Kenosis and the Earth- 

life OF OUR Lord 148 

20. Concerning the Risen Body of our 

Lord 162 

21. Concerning the Ascension of our Lord 165 

22. Concerning our own growth in Grace 167 

23. Summary 170 

24. A Genealogy of the Theory . . -175 



I 



INTRODUCTORY 

Even the most casual observer of the 
characteristics of contemporary thought 
must be struck by the appearance of many 
symptoms which speak of a prevaiHng 
restlessness in the minds of men. 

Impatience of old boundaries, whether 
of creed or of opinion, is manifested by 
vehement denials of orthodox beliefs ; and 
the same impatience shews itself in equally 
vehement assertions in favour of new 
standards whether of faith or morals. 

Some persons, under the influence of 
this feverish restlessness, take refuge in 
a dreary scepticism ; some in credulity or 



2 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN i 

superstition. Some are led to exalt private 
judgement; some, submission to authority, 
as the only panacea for the cure of the 
uneasiness from which they suffer. Some, 
again, can see no remedy, and with how- 
ever great reluctance, accept the conditions 
which they find so irksome, as being of 
necessity ; and according to their disposi- 
tions, proceed as they would say, to make 
the best of what remains to them. 

All, in whatever way, seek for some 
cure, or at least some alleviation of this 
epidemic ; and no remedy can be suggested 
but has its troop of strong believers, no 
charlatan appears but finds a following. 

In a word, the most opposite extremes 
of devotion and dissipation, of selfishness 
and self-denial, unite in this that they 
point to the existence of a deeply-rooted 
prevalence -of dissatisfaction. 

This restlessness, impatience, uneasi- 
ness, call it what you will, is not however 
all an evil. It gives a motive for a search 
after better things, and though in the 



I INTRODUCTORY 3 

search some individuals may go astray, the 
human family will eventually find a benefit. 

Among the more hopeful aspects of the 
restlessness of which we speak is this, that 
it has driven men to look beyond this 
world, to think of the Unseen, whether of 
the future or of the present ; and in it to 
seek for satisfaction^ for freedom from the 
unrest of earth ; in it to find some hope of 
peace, or at least of comparative repose. 

A strong, even overwhelming desire 
is evident on many sides to gain some 
knowledge of the Hidden World and its 
conditions. Many Societies have been 
established on many different foundations, 
whose object, if they may be said to have 
a common object, is to investigate the 
phenomena of the Unseen. 

The feeling that this object is of sur- 
passing importance is very widely spread 
abroad ; and the hold that it has taken on 
men's minds is clearly manifested by the 
enthusiasm of those who are dominated by 
it, and at the same time by the vigour 



4 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN I 

with which it is denounced by those who 
oppose them. 

It matters not what band of workers or 
investigators in this field of enquiry is 
selected, they will be found devoted to 
their self-imposed task ; and at the same 
time there will be found in opposition 
to them antagonists who spare no effort 
of argument or ridicule to render their 
conclusions nugatory. 

Both opposers and opposed, however 
much at issue among themselves, whatever 
theory they may uphold or condemn, agree 
in this, that the pursuit of knowledge 
of the Unseen is worthy of the greatest 
attention — the ones, since they engage 
in it so earnestly ; the others, since they 
feel it worth while to combat the conclu- 
sions which have been arrived at. 

Amid all their differences and diver- 
gencies, they all bear united testimony to 
the hold which the Unseen has taken on 
the imagination of the day. 

Chief among all associations, and far 



4 



I INTRODUCTORY 5 

above all societies of theorists however 
earnest, the Church of Christ is an undying 
witness to the attractions of the Unseen, 
and to the paramount importance of the 
study of the things which are hidden from 
our mortal eyes. She speaks of freedom, 
of liberty, of redemption from the elements 
of this earthly life, which is concerned with 
things visible and tangible ; and points to 
the things which are not seen, contrasting 
them, the eternal, with the things which 
are seen, and only temporal. And her 
antagonists, her enemies from whatever 
side they marshal their forces against her, 
bear testimony, only the more strong in 
proportion to the strength of their hostility, 
in the same direction. 

The forces of attraction and repulsion 
are opposite to one another, but the power 
is the same. One pole attracts, the other 
pole repels ; but in both cases it is the 
power of the Unseen which is in action, 
and shews itself by its effects on all, how- 
ever diverse those effects may be. 



6 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN i 

It is a very mysterious power. The 
whole subject is of course very full of 
mystery. But that is no reason why it 
should be avoided. Nor indeed is it a 
reason why we should despair of learning 
anything about it. 

The term " mystery " is relative, not 
absolute. And though, from the Christian 
standpoint, the mystery of the Hidden 
World must be regarded as having to do 
with the most sacred subjects, still the 
strongest recognition of this sacredness 
does not carry with it a prohibition to 
investigation, but only a warning as to the 
manner of the investigation. 

The spot on which we stand may be 
sacred holy ground; we are not on that 
account warned off from it, but only warned 
as to our behaviour while we stand upon 
it. 

As a matter of fact there is nothing so 
sacred about a mystery as to forbid our 
trying to come to some understanding of 
it ; there is no irreverence in endeavouring 



I INTRODUCTORY 7 

to penetrate into any of the secrets of 
Nature, however wide a meaning we may 
assign to the word Nature, even if we use 
it to include the GOD of Nature. 

The Truth is sacred. Seeking for the 
Truth there is neither presumption nor 
irreverence, nor any intrusion into for- 
bidden ground ; always provided that the 
search is prosecuted in a right spirit ; that 
is, with the intention of finding out the 
Truth, and not our own advantage. 

Indeed, it is a matter of common knowl- 
edge that as time goes on many difficulties 
seem to solve themselves; many prob- 
lems which appeared to be insuperably 
mysterious have worked themselves out 
into comprehension. It is as if the world, 
while sweeping onward in its course, were 
continually tearing apart the veil behind 
which so much is shrouded from our eyes ; 
thus making it possible for those who are 
on the watch to see through the rifts some- 
thing which before was hidden either wholly 
or in part. 



8 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN i 

In this way may be figured the gradual 
development of what has been dimly per- 
ceived before ; as also the gradual percep- 
tion of newer knowledge by those who 
look for it, or are prepared to recognise it 
when it is before their eyes. 

Without for a moment forgetting or 
undervaluing the marvellous advances of 
scientific research in *the physical world, 
or its results in revealing to us many 
secrets of Nature in its grandest as well 
as in its most delicate forms, it must be 
acknowledged that by many minds a still 
more absorbing interest is found in the 
thought of that which is not seen, and 
under our conditions cannot be seen 
by us. 

This, the Unseen, is often called the 
super-natural or the supra-natural, but 
none the less it belongs to Nature, though 
in another and a larger and a higher 
development. And indeed we are not 
without grounds for supposing that, 
broadly speaking, there is a physical 



I INTRODUCTORY 9 

connection between that which is seen 
and that which is not seen. 

Of course we *must be prepared for 
an encounter with many difficulties in 
attempting to deal with what we cannot 
see. But after all, sight is not the only 
nor even the principal power which we 
possess; there are many other avenues 
beside that of vision through which we 
may approach a knowledge of the Truth. 

This being so, that which is unseen is 
certainly not beyond the limits of legiti- 
mate investigation, and it may be hoped 
that it may be brought within the limits 
of a sound theory of understanding. 

Of necessity any such theory must be 
at the first very largely tentative ; and the 
evidence by which it is supported must 
be very largely circumstantial. " Proof in 
such a case can hardly be demonstrative, 
but it may be distinctly corroborative, and 
this too in a very high degree." 

By many people no doubt, any attempt 
to theorise about the Unseen will be con- 



lO THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN i 

demned in advance as being purely specu- 
lative. But speculation, even in its wildest 
forms, has often led to very important and 
very valuable results in other fields of 
enquiry, and it may do the same in this 
case, if kept within due bounds of sober 
and rational restraint. 



II 

THE PROPOSITION 

My object in this essay is to submit this 
as a proposition — " That it is in Highei 
Space that we are to look for the under- 
standing of the Unseen," and to set forth 
some considerations which support the 
proposition, or at least seem to me to do 
so. And I would ask my readers to look 
upon the argument as a whole, suspend- 
ing their judgment as it follows out its 
course, and regarding it as consisting 
of many threads, of which each alone is 
incapable of bearing the weight of the 
proposition, though together they have, 
as I hope, the strength which is necessary 
to support it. 

It must be remembered that the only 



12 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN n 

evidence that can be produced is more or 
less indirect. But if it appears that the 
different threads, or the different consid- 
erations that will be adduced, agree with 
one another, and with the necessary con- 
ditions of the case, then they will lend 
and receive support, each to all, and all 
from each. And that which was doubtful 
will become more probable as repeated 
corroborations are brought forward, and 
from probability, I hope, it will advance 
to a reasonable acceptance. 



Ill 

THE HIGHER SPACE, AN APOLOGY 

There can be but few persons who have 
not at least heard of the Higher Space, 
or, to use the more familiar expression, the 
Fourth Dimension of Space. It is a term 
which in some excites a good-natured ridi- 
cule ; some hear it with a scarcely veiled 
derision ; others treat it with a more or 
less respectful interest, as describing 
something very wonderful ; some again 
meet it with the idea that it speaks of 
a purely mental and imaginary concep- 
tion, useful, it may be to mathematicians 
in their more abstruse calculations, as a 
means of solving difficult problems in the 
higher branches of their science ; but I 
suppose that all or nearly all will agree 

13 



14 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN m 

in regarding any such application of the 
subject as I am contemplating, as being, 
if not fanciful, at all events very nearly 
approaching that position of affairs. 

I think however that it may be shewn 
that the proposition is not fanciful, that 
this conception of Higher Space is not to 
be regarded as merely imaginary. On the 
contrary it is to be considered as giving us 
a hope of the greatest assistance towards 
the solution of questions in which we all 
have, or at least ought to have, a very 
direct and even overwhelming interest. 

It would be highly unscientific to deny 
the possibility of the fulfilment of the hope 
which has been expressed, or to assert a 
priori that the Higher Space is and can 
only be the playground in which an in- 
genious imagination may disport itself un- 
checked. We will, therefore, endeavour 
to investigate this most fascinating sub- 
ject, with some hope, however faint it may 
be, that as we proceed we may not impos- 
sibly discover something of value, or even 
of importance. 



IV 

THE HIGHER SPACE 

As a preliminary it is necessary that 
the principles on which we shall have to 
depend should be enunciated with as 
much clearness as possible. And the 
result of various discussions has shewn 
that a very considerable amount of detail 
is not to be thought superfluous. 

Without doubt even the most elementary 
idea of Higher Space is a difiicult one to 
grasp ; and although it is not really essen- 
tial to my argument, still I cannot but feel 
that many persons would not be prepared 
to accept any conclusions unless that idea 
were set before them with some elabora- 
tion. It is quite sufficient if the existence 
of the Higher Space is taken for granted, 

15 



1 6 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN iV 

and this assumption used as the basis of 
our argument, the principles being accepted 
till the deductions drawn from them have 
been examined. If these are consistent 
with each other and with what we know, 
either of our own knowledge or by Revela- 
tion, the preliminary assumption will be 
fully justified. 

I. The first point on which we shall 
have to dwell is this, that there are very 
few indeed who can realise the idea of the 
Higher Space to the extent of picturing it 
mentally. Of these I am not one. 

This power is no doubt a very enviable 
one ; but though it be lacking, the want of 
it does not in the least degree interfere 
with the acceptance of the proposition 
before us. It will amply suffice, as has 
been said, if the principles are grasped, 
and the argument will not suffer in any 
way so long as this is the case. 

We start then from this point, that we 
cannot illustrate the conception of the 



IV 



THE HIGHER SPACE 1 7 



Higher Space even in the most diagram- 
matic way upon a blackboard. It is at 
first a purely mental conception, and the 
only way in which it can be approached 
is by degrees. 

2. At the very outset we are met by 
a difiiculty, which expresses itself in the 
question, Where is there any room for 
this Higher Space ? 

Our natural ideas of our own Space, 
based upon our personal experience, lead 
us to imagine, among other things, that it 
extends on all sides of us. Thus, when 
we try to think of other Worlds or other 
Spaces, we are inclined to think of them 
as if they were at a very great distance 
from us. 

That is to say that we think of our 
World or our Space, as if it were in the 
centre of the Universe, occupying a vast 
sphere, while beyond that sphere there may 
be other Worlds or Systems or Spaces, 
occupying still vaster spherical envelopes. 



l8 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN iv 

Or it may be that we think more 
humbly of our Space, and, with a greater 
modesty, regard it as being in some ob- 
scure corner of the Universe, forming a 
block, so to speak, of Space, beyond which 
other blocks of some kind or other exist, 
and represent other Worlds or Systems or 
Spaces. 

Or again, it may be that these expres- 
sions only represent to our minds some- 
thing connected with the stars and planets 
and constellations. This last view is only 
mentioned for the purpose of pointing out 
that all these bodies are situated in our 
Space, so that no reference to them is pos- 
sible when the expression, " Other Worlds," 
is used. Higher Space is outside our 
Space, and it is therefore outside our Space 
that room is to be found for it. Distance 
does not enter into the question at all ; it 
is only with Direction that we have to do. 

This is the first of all the principles 
which we have to get hold of ; it is a fact 
which must be borne in mind ; else there 



IV THE HIGHER SPACE 1 9 

is no hope of understanding the subject 
at all. 

We will try to make this quite clear. 
It may be seen in this way. Astronomers 
have taught us that our Space is practi- 
cally illimitable. Figures are lost in the 
depths of Space. Thousands of miles are 
as unconsidered trifles in the computation 
of the distances of even the nearest stars. 
And far away beyond them our Space 
still extends indefinitely, till the mind is 
staggered in the endeavour to appreciate, 
however inadequately, the extent of our 
own Space. 

The only escape that we can find from 
hopeless despair in the attempt to de- 
scribe the distance of the boundary of our 
Space, is to say that it is infinite. This 
really means that we do not know any- 
thing about it, that we cannot fix a limit 
beyond which our Space does not extend. 

This being so, the pertinence of the 
enquiry, Where is there any room for 
Higher Space ? is to be seen. If such a 



20 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN iv 

Space does exist outside our Space, does 
it lie beyond the infinitely distant boun- 
dary ? Or where ? 

3. If the foregoing were the only idea 
of Space with which we are acquainted, 
it would, indeed, be hopeless to attempt 
to realise anything belonging to other 
Worlds or Spaces. Remove them to as 
great a distance as you will, they are still 
not removed beyond that infinitely distant 
boundary of our own Space. In other 
words there is no room in that direction 
for a Higher Space. 



V 

LOWER SPACES 

1. But this is not our only idea of Space. 
We can and do speak of inferior Spaces. 
By thinking of them our minds may be 
prepared for the recognition of the exist- 
ence of Higher Space, existing not at a 
distance such as no figures can express, 
but elsewhere, in some new direction with 
which we are not practically acquainted. 
This, as I have said, by degrees. 

2. The first of these steps is to be taken 
by confining our thoughts to a single 
straight line, resolutely excluding from 
our minds anything and everything out- 
side that one straight line. 

Suppose that this is done. Now we are 

21 



22 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN V 

thinking of Space of One Dimension, or, 
as we may call it, of One Direction; since 
under these conditions motion can only 
take place along that line. That is, if a 
point is travelling under these conditions, 
it can only trace or retrace that line. 
Backwards or forwards it is the same line 
along which it moves and no other. Only 
one direction is possible, that is along the 
one straight line, outside of which it can- 
not be transported. 

This is the simplest and most element- 
ary idea of Space that can be put before our 
minds. In other words it is the Lowest 
Space of which we can think. 

Though speaking of it as a straight line, 
it is not to be regarded as a mathematical 
straight line, for that consists of length 
without breadth, and is imaginary, not 
physical. We are thinking of physical 
Space, it must therefore be regarded as 
being wide enough for an atom to move 
along it. 

To make the conception of this Lowest 



V LOWER SPACES 23 

Space as clear as possible, we will rep- 
resent it by a straight tube of glass of 
the smallest conceivable section, perfectly 
smooth inside, and just large enough for 
the smallest possible subdivision of matter 
to pass along it. The bore of the tube is 
Space of One Direction. It is of indefi- 
nite tenuity, but it is thinkable. 

I dwell on this because it is important 
that from the first our minds should famil- 
iarise themselves with the thought of the 
limitations of Low Space. And because 
we can examine the conditions of this 
Lowest Space with accuracy. 

Since the diameter of the tube is the 
smallest possible, it is evident that any 
being in this Space must fill up the tube 
entirely from side to side. He may be of 
any length, but he cannot be thicker than 
the tube. This means that he cannot pass 
another being in that Space. 

Childish as this observation may seem 
to be, it is not without its importance ; for 
it makes it evident that the possibilities of 



24 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN v 

existence, whether physical or mental, are 
terribly restricted in the Lowest Space. 
Activity of either kind is forbidden, accord- 
ing to our notions. There is very little to 
do, and very very little to think about. 

Still, though this Space is so extremely 
limited, it is impossible to know all 
about it. 

Supposing that one single being dwelt 
in it he could travel for ever either back- 
wards or forwards to an infinite distance. 
He could only be really acquainted with 
the monotonous condition of his momen- 
tary resting-place. 

And even we, regarding his Space from 
outside, through the transparent walls of it, 
cannot know all about it; for beyond the 
small extent in our immediate neighbour- 
hood, we can only depend upon the 
principles of Analogy and Continuity in 
our speculations as to the conditions pre- 
vailing at different points of the Space. 

Even here on the threshold of our 
investigations of Space the Mystery of 



V LOWER SPACES 25 

Space confronts us. There is no escape 
from it. 

For even in this most restricted concep- 
tion of Space, the very lowest which we 
can call physical, we are met by the idea 
of infinity, which bids us beware of sup- 
posing that even such an apparently sim- 
ple idea as that of one straight line is to 
be completely grasped by our powers of 
thought. Our knowledge cannot be com- 
plete even in respect of Space of One 
Direction; it is only close to us that we 
can absolutely know what is going on. 
Beyond that, deduction and inference and 
reasoning lead us, and we are content to 
follow their guidance, but without them 
we should be in hopeless ignorance of all 
beyond our reach. 

3. We will now take another step, and, 
rising a little in the thought of Space, turn 
our minds to what exists at the two sides 
of our straight line. 

This is a Plane or Surface. Not, indeed. 



26 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN v 

a mathematical plane which possesses only 
the properties of length and breadth, that is 
an imaginary conception, ours is physical. 

We may represent this Space as we did 
the Lower Space, by thinking of two per- 
fectly smooth flat plates of glass, lying 
parallel to each other, and so close to each 
other that they are separated only by the 
thickness of an atom. 

Giving our minds liberty to act in this 
Space, but not above or below it, we find 
that we are able to think of motion, not 
only in a backwards and forwards direction, 
but also to the right and left. 

A new Direction has been introduced. 
This Space is known as Space of Two 
Dimensions, or, as we may call it, of Two 
Directions, since in addition to the One 
Direction that we found along the straight 
line, we may now diverge to either side 
of it. 

It is convenient to think of these diver- 
gences as taking place to the right or left 
along lines at right angles to the original 



1 



V LOWER SPACES 27 

straight line, because in this way there is 
the least confusion introduced into the 
discussion of motion in this Space. 

We will, therefore, consider a point 
moving in Space of Two Directions in this 
way. Or rather to import a little human 
interest into the consideration, we will 
suppose that we are watching some being 
through the plate of glass above him. 

In order that the idea may be as vivid 
as possible, we will think of him as if he 
were like one of those shadow pictures 
which we sometimes see on the walls of old 
houses. What we shall see is this. He 
can travel from any one point to any other, 
by going first for a certain distance along 
one straight line, and then by going for a 
certain distance along another straight line 
at right angles to it. As a rule he will go 
straight from one position to the other. But 
this is only because he likes to take a short 
cut ; we know that he can make his journey 
in the way which we have mentioned. 

When, therefore, we wish to describe 



28 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN v 

the Space in which he moves, in the sim- 
plest way, we say that by a judicious use 
of Two Directions only, he can get from 
any one place to any other. 

When we look a little closer, we see 
that this being fills up the whole of his 
Space from side to side. If therefore he 
wishes to pass another being in his Space 
he can only do it by jumping or climbing 
over his head, or crawling under his feet. 
He cannot turn round, he can only see 
what is before him. And of course he 
cannot see anything which lies outside the 
plates which enclose him. His senses are 
only adapted for the Space in which he 
dwells, he cannot by means of any of them 
perceive anything outside of it. 

But at the same time we observe that 
he is infinitely better off than a being in 
the Lower Space of only One Direction, 
he is not compelled to confine himself to 
the utterly monotonous existence in the 
tube, his ideas are of a higher order than 
those of the lower being ; compared to 



V LOWER SPACES 29 

them his powers are of an infinitely 
extended nature, he can think of what the 
lower being could not conceive, he is in 
the enjoyment of a Greater Freedom, 
although to our notions even that is sadly 
limited. 

Although this Space is to our percep- 
tions very limited, still as before it is not 
possible to know all about it There is 
no limit beyond which we can say that 
farther motion is impossible. Our friend 
may take his journey with an acquaintance 
behind him, and travel to any distance, 
and then it will always be possible to think 
of going farther. He can never be said 
to know the conditions of any part of his 
Space which he has not visited. And 
even we who can look down upon his 
Space, and see through the plate of glass 
what is going on in it, cannot know all 
about that Space ; for beyond the small 
extent of it in our own immediate neigh- 
bourhood, we can only depend upon the 
principles of Analogy and Continuity in 



30 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN V 

our speculations as to the conditions pre- 
vailing at different points of the Space. 

The idea of infinity comes in, to warn 
us of the existence of the Mystery of 
Space, and to remind us that what we 
know outside the very narrow limits ■ of 
our own observation, we can know only 
by a process of reasoning or deduction 
or inference, although we are content 
to consider them as being trustworthy 
guides. 

There are two observations to be made 
in this place which are of great importance 
to the developing of our future argument. 
This is the first. That we perceive that 
an infinite number of tubes such as repre- 
sented the Lowest Space may be laid side 
by side in the Space of Two Directions, 
this means that the Space of Two Direc- 
tions is of an infinitely greater extent than 
the Space of One Direction. That is that 
the infinity of the Lower Space is swal- 
lowed up in the infinity of the Higher; 
so that this latter though it includes the 



V LOWER SPACES 3I 

former may be regarded as practically 
independent of it. So small a portion of 
it is occupied by the comparatively insig- 
nificant tube, that from the lower point 
of view, the whole of the Higher Space 
may be regarded as lying outside the In- 
ferior Space, and beyond it. At the same 
time the Higher Space is in absolute con- 
tact with every point of the Lower Space, 
at the two sides at the Right and Left. 
Not at an infinite distance from it. 

Already then there appears a faint 
glimmering of the answer to the ques- 
tion, Where is there any room for the 
Higher Space ? 

The second observation is this. In 
passing from the Lower Space of One 
Direction to the next Higher Space of 
Two Directions there is an enormous 
increase in the power of the mind, pro- 
portional to the increase of the Space in 
which it works. At once it becomes 
emancipated from the very narrow limits 
imposed upon it while it was confined in 



32 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN V 

its operations to Space of One Direction, 
and it revels in the sense of comparatively 
very much Greater Freedom. 

4. We are now ready to take another 
step. We will introduce the idea of a 
Third Direction, that is we will no longer 
confine ourselves to the plane Space shut 
in between the two glass plates ; but, 
removing them, permit ourselves to rise 
above or sink below it. This brings in 
the conception of thickness, or of what 
we call solid things. 

Up to the present we have only been 
able to think of flat things. Everything 
has been perfectly flat, possessing only 
length and breadth, with the minimum of 
thickness which is required for any physi- 
cal perception of them at all. Now beside 
length and breadth things may have the 
property of thickness. 

This Space to which we have come is 
known as Space of Three Dimensions, or 
in the same way as before we may call it 



V LOWER SPACES 33 

Space of Three Directions ; for now we 
are able to think of motion as being 
possible and taking place — 

(i) Backwards or Forwards, (ii) To the 
Right or Left, (iii) Up or Down. 

In the same way as before we notice 
that by a judicious use of motion in these 
three directions we can reach any one 
point in this Space from any other point. 
That is by moving for a certain distance 
along one straight line, then for a certain 
distance along another straight line at 
right angles to it, and then along another 
straight line at right angles to the plane 
in which the two former lines were drawn. 

Of course there is a nearer way of mak- 
ing the journey ; but since every journey 
may be analysed in this manner, it is 
evident that only the three directions of 
which we are speaking are necessary, and 
therefore that the name which has been 
given to this Space is a true description 
of it. 

At the risk of being tedious I must 



34 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN v 

repeat the observations which have already 
been made as to the relations of the two 
Lower Spaces ; for it is desirable to 
familiarise the mind with the principles 
which they involve. 

First, then, the Higher Space of Three 
Directions is of infinitely greater extent 
than the Lower Space of Two Directions. 
Or, to put it in the clearest way, there is 
room in it for an infinite number of Spaces 
of Two Directions piled one upon another. 
The infinity of the Lower Space is swal- 
lowed up in the higher infinity of the 
Higher Space, so that this latter is practi- 
cally independent of the former, and may 
be considered as lying outside of it, and 
beyond it; while at the same time the 
Higher Space is in perfect contact with 
every point of the Lower Space through 
its whole extent, not at an infinite distance 
from it. 

Secondly, in passing from the Space 
of Two Directions into the Higher Space 
of Three Directions, there is an enormous 



V LOWER SPACES 35 

increase in the power of the mind, propor- 
tional to the increase of the extent of the 
Space in which it works. It has become 
emancipated from the very narrow hmits 
of the flat Space, and rejoices in the sense 
of a higher Hberty and a Greater Freedom. 

I will just set down in passing, though 
it may hardly be necessary, that this Space 
of Three Directions is the Space in which 
we live. 

So far we have been considering what 
is before our eyes, and by using almost 
identical expressions, we have found our 
way from Space of One Dimension or 
One Direction through Space of Two 
Dimensions or Two Directions, to Space 
of Three Dimensions or Directions. The 
same kind of process has been followed 
with exactness. 

On the way we have seen that the 
Higher Space of Two Directions is in 
perfect contact with Space of One Direc- 
tion ; though to an intelligent being in 
the Lower Space it would naturally be 



36 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN v 

conceived as being at an infinite distance, 
since it lies beyond his range. And in 
the same way we have seen that Space 
of Three Directions is in perfect contact 
with Space of Two Directions, though to 
an intelligent being in the Lower Space 
it would naturally be conceived as lying 
at an infinite distance, since it is beyond 
his range. 

These results must be borne in mind. 

In view of the next step which we are 
about to take, this farther observation 
is desirable, viz. That we must recognise 
the existence of the mystery of Space here 
in the Space with which we are most 
familiar, as well as in the Inferior Spaces 
with which we have been occupying our- 
selves up to the present. Beyond the 
very narrow range of our own personal 
experience, we have to depend very largely 
on the principles of Analogy and Conti- 
nuity for our ideas of what goes on in the 
depths of Space. We cannot see beyond 
a very little way into the farther distances 



V LOWER SPACES 37 

of Space. And even when our vision is 
reinforced by the telescope, the additional 
penetration of Space which is within our 
power is comparatively small when we 
consider the infinite depths of it. And 
yet we are quite content to draw our con- 
clusions by reasoning from what we see 
as to the conditions of what we cannot 
see, or at best can only very dimly 
perceive. 

And more than this, since, as we have 
said, we are not concerned with distances 
so much as direction, it is well that we 
should recognise the fact that our ideas of 
direction are by no means to be depended 
on. With us direction is relative, not 
absolute. Let it be supposed that there 
are two men standing at the two poles 
of the Earth, and two more on the 
Equator, these two latter looking towards 
each other, that is one looking East and 
the other looking West. Now when the 
man at the North Pole points Up, the man 
at the South Pole says that the direction 



38 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN v 

is not Up but Down ; while the two at 
the Equator are not only at issue with 
them, but also at the same time at issue 
between themselves. The direction in 
which the first is pointing is to the one 
looking East neither Up nor Down, but to 
the Left ; while to his brother who is look- 
ing West it is as certainly to the Right. 
From this we see that our ideas of direction 
are not by any means absolute, but purely 
personal, or at the best conventional. 



VI 

THE FOURTH DIRECTION 

In passing from the thought of Space of 
Three Dimensions or Directions to Space 
of Four Directions, we shall have to 
introduce a new direction. But though 
at first this may appear to be a difficulty, 
if the result of the little illustration above 
has been taken to heart, it will not be 
at all insuperable. 

As before, all that we have to do is to 
give our minds liberty to imagine another 
Direction beside the three with which we 
have been engaged. If our minds have 
been confused by the thought of the 
mystery of Space as we have seen it in 
the Inferior Spaces as well as in our own, 
and by the bewildering differences in the 

39 



40 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN vi 

estimation of directions among ourselves 
from which we can only escape by the 
use of conventional expressions, no new 
effort will be called for, a repetition of 
the one which we have already made will 
be sufficient. And it may be repeated 
once more that a clear comprehension of 
the new direction is not by any means 
essential to the developing of the propo- 
sition before us. Indeed, if we had to 
wait till this new direction should be 
realised, we should have to wait a very 
long time, and then probably be dis- 
appointed. 

With the introduction of the new Direc- 
tion we must give it a name. The only 
name that can be given is something like 
this. The Fourth Direction. For this 
Direction being one with which we are 
not acquainted, we cannot give it any 
descriptive name, and it is therefore desir- 
able to make use of a name which shall 
not commit us to anything beyond our 
experience, and which at the same time 



VI THE FOURTH DIRECTION 4 1 

does not open out the possibility of any 
misapprehension. 

Now we are to think of motion as 
being more compHcated in analysis than 
before, though at the same time more free ; 
since we conceive of it as taking place 
in a new direction as well as those with 
which we are acquainted. Of course this 
new direction is not only along the line 
of the Fourth Direction which is at right 
angles to the three mutually perpendicular 
lines of which we have experience [though 
that line is taken as being typical of the 
Space, in the same way as the Up and 
Down line was taken as being typical of 
the Space of Three Directions in compari- 
son with the Space of Two Directions ; 
and the Right and Left line, of the Space 
of Two Directions in comparison with the 
Space of One Direction] there are an 
infinite number of directions compounded 
between each one of the Three and the 
new Fourth Direction. That is, we are 
no more compelled to confine our energies 



42 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN vi 

to three directions only, since a Fourth 
Direction with its infinite number of com- 
binations is opened to us so that our range 
is extended indefinitely. 

Of course I am only speaking of our 
mental range, for in our present conditions 
this Higher Space is altogether beyond 
our physical reach. 

Making use of almost the same phrase- 
ology as before, we recognise the fact that 
this Higher Space of Four Directions is 
of infinitely greater extent than the Lower 
Space of Three Directions. The infinity 
of our Space is swallowed up in the higher 
infinity of the Higher Space, so that the 
latter is practically independent of the 
former, and may be regarded as lying out- 
side it and beyond it, while yet it is in 
perfect contact with every point of our 
Space in its whole extent. Not at an 
infinite distance from it. 

And moreover the same observation 
may be made as in the earlier cases, viz. 
that an infinite number of Spaces such as 



VI THE FOURTH DIRECTION 43 

ours may be accumulated one on another, 
within the hmits of the Higher Space of 
Four Directions. 

This is a terribly hard thing to realise 
in any way, but it is evidently a fact, and 
to accept it is a help in recognising some 
of the conditions of the Higher Space. 

We have now found the answer to the 
question. Where is there any room for a 
Higher Space .^^ It lies in the Fourth 
Direction. 

Step by step, using almost the same 
words, we have risen from the conception 
of Space of One Direction to that of 
Space of Four Directions. The process 
has been identically the same. The prin- 
ciples of Analogy and Continuity, to which 
we looked for guidance in the farther 
regions of the Lower Spaces, as well as in 
the distances of our own Space, the only 
principles on which we could depend for 
knowledge of anything beyond our imme- 
diate neighbourhood, have been found to be 
available in this case also. So that now we 



44 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN vi 

see our way to some understanding of the 
Higher Space of Four Directions, at least 
so far as this, that there is a logical ground 
for the acceptance of the conception of it 
as existing — Somewhere. 

The fact that we cannot point in the 
Fourth Direction need not trouble us. 
This is not to be expected. For as we 
have seen in considering the Inferior 
Spaces, even intelligent beings in a Lower 
Space are utterly unable to recognise the 
Direction which is characteristic of the 
next Higher Space, so much so that they 
naturally think of it as lying at an infinite 
distance, while yet to our perceptions it is 
absolutely near to them. 

In the same way to our natural ideas 
concerning it, the Higher Space of Four 
Directions seems to be at an infinite dis- 
tance, simply because it lies in an unknown 
direction, of which we cannot be cognisant. 
And the Unknown is naturally relegated 
to a great distance. 

There are, as I have said, some favoured 



VI THE FOURTH DIRECTION 45 

individuals who can see in their mind s 
eye the Hne which is drawn in the Fourth 
Direction. Though there are but a few of 
them, the rest of us may find a satisfac- 
tion in knowing that this Direction can be 
mentally pictured by some gifted persons ; 
and those who have had their doubts about 
its real existence, may in some degree be 
reassured by the knowledge that it is real 
to some, although that experience is not 
shared by all. 

But after all we do not depend only 
upon this fact, nor on the analogy which 
the pursuit of our argument has set before 
us. 

The foregoing has only been an attempt 
at a translation into ordinary language 
of what mathematicians have taught us. 
They are easily able to shew far more than 
a possibility of the existence of this Fourth 
Direction. 

They can write down expressions which 
seem to represent figures in Space of Four 
Directions, and then make sections of them 



46 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN vi 

which we can at once recognise as being 
real, not fanciful. 

Thus for example — 

^2 _|_y _|_ ^2 _|_ ^2 _. ^ 

represents a figure in Space of Four 
Dimensions. 

The Section of it in our own Space is — 

which is a Sphere, of which the radius is r. 
The operation is exactly the same as 
that by which we find the Section of the 
Sphere in Space of Two Dimensions, which 
is — 

and represents a circle, of which the radius 
is r. " 

This brings the Fourth Direction of 
Space into the region of real existences. 
For it is far harder to imagine that there 
can be real sections of things which do not 
exist, than to believe in the existence of 
real figures when we see the sections. 



ii 



VI THE FOURTH DIRECTION 47 

Of course in endeavouring to translate 
the accounts of operations in the Higher 
Geometry into plain English, the exceed- 
ingly idiomatic language of the original 
has made it impossible to represent it 
satisfactorily. Much therefore has been 
lost. But, however, enough has been 
preserved to introduce the idea of Higher 
Space, and to make the meaning of the 
term to some extent intelligible. Suffi- 
ciently so, I trust, for its adoption as the 
basis of a working hypothesis. 

Thus much at all events is clear, that 
we are speaking of a vastly greater extent 
of Space than that in which we move — a 
Space which is in absolute apposition with 
every point of our Space, not far away ; 
on the contrary situated in such wise 
as that the smallest movement in the 
Fourth Direction would immediately bring 
us into it. 

And this, that in that Space, the mind is 
free to exercise itself in Four Directions 
instead of only three, and therefore finds 



48 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN vi 

its powers enormously increased, increased 
in proportion to the increase of the Space 
in which it works ; for it is emancipated 
from the hmitations which were imposed 
upon it in our Lower Space. Of these 
hmitations we are not always conscious ; to 
recognise the fact that they are due to the 
conditions of our Space requires a little 
thought. But it is to be hoped that the 
preceding discussion of the Lower Spaces 
has made this tolerably clear, for in truth 
there is no new principle involved. 



VII 

THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN 

I WILL call this Space The World of the 
Unseen. 

This will at once suggest what is in my 
mind, viz, that it is not empty, not peopled 
only by imaginations and dreams, but full 
of life and activity, with all things that are 
necessary for the expression of that ac- 
tivity, and the maintenance and enjoyment 
of that life. 

It is of necessity that the only proof 
that can be given in favour of this as- 
sumption must depend on circumstantial 
evidence, of which the force is largely 
cumulative. But this is no more than 
another way of saying that we are consid- 
ering something that is out of reach. The 

49 



50 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN 



VII 



same kind of proof is regarded as being 
valid in connection with other questions 
which deal with what is out of reach and 
out of sight ; there is therefore no reason, 
so far, why it should not be the same in 
this case also. 

The proof must consist in the answers 
which are given to questions such as 
these — 

Does this theory explain what we 
know to be facts, though hitherto without 
explanation ? 

Does it remove any difficulties which 
have puzzled us ? 

Does it reconcile any apparent con- 
tradictions ? 

I hope and think that it does. And if 
this be shewn to be the case, the cumula- 
tive force of the argument will be largely 
increased by every additional success. 
Moreover, each case in which the theory is 
justified by its results, will present the 
thought of Higher Space in such a way 
as to tend to the satisfying of those who 



VII THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN 5 1 

may have hesitated to receive it, on the 
ground that they cannot understand the 
conception, and do not regard the previous 
argument as being sufficient to estabHsh 
the existence of a real Space beyond our 
Space, lying in an unknown direction, 
infinitely larger than our Space, and in 
perfect contact with it. 



VIII 

CONCERNING THE DEPARTED 

We have now seen some of the princi- 
ples on which we are to depend, and are 
sufficiently equipped to proceed to the 
discussion of some of the questions which 
we are to consider. 

The first of these is a very interesting 
one. It is this. Where do they dwell 
that are departed hence in the Lord? 
What is their condition .^^ 

These are questions which have re- 
ceived very many answers, and these 
answers by no means agree together. 

When we speak of the Departed we 
are obliged to use the greatest caution ; 
and I cannot think that our thoughts of 
them are even tolerably satisfactory. 

52 



VIII CONCERNING THE DEPARTED 53 

We speak of them as being happy. We 
beheve that they are in a state of happi- 
ness. We are right in doing so. 

But while we are sure that they are 
happy, we are compelled to acknowledge 
that this conveys absolutely nothing to our 
minds as to the manner of their happiness. 

The fact of their happiness is estab- 
lished. The manner of it is most obscure. 
There is a fundamental obstacle to the 
understanding of our words. 

So far as saying that they are at peace, 
where the wicked cease from troubling and 
the weary are at rest, that they are in safe- 
keeping, in a better world, and so on, we 
are sure that we are making no mistake, 
because we receive these statements on the 
most certain warrant of Holy Scripture. 

But when we come to think more closely 
about it, we find that so far as our descrip- 
tion has gone, the happiness of which we 
have been speaking consists in the absence 
of disturbing elements, ix. our description 
of it has been characterised by negatives. 



54 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN viii 

Now we cannot understand a purely nega- 
tive happiness. So long as we can only 
say that in their life there is not this 
or that to which we are accustomed, the 
only idea that is definitely presented to 
us is this, that their state is altogether 
different from anything with which we are 
acquainted, and each successive negative 
makes the distinction or even the contra- 
diction between their state and ours more 
wide. So much so that the principle of 
Continuity which we have learnt to regard 
as being of almost, if not quite, universal 
application, fails us here. 

It is true that in the case of one who 
regards GOD as his loving Father, his 
faith is able to surmount this difficulty. 
He is content to know that his departed 
are in the hands of a tender Father, Who 
is sure to fulfil His word to them, and give 
them all things that are necessary to their 
fullest happiness. 

But this requires faith ; and all men 
have not faith. 



i 



VIII CONCERNING THE DEPARTED 55 

And even those whose faith is of the 
strongest and most robust would find a 
very true and lively satisfaction, if they 
could only know something of the condi- 
tion of their beloved ones who have gone 
from them. 

We do want to know this, if it be pos- 
sible ; we do want to have something 
definite before us ; something that we may 
be able to grasp if only partially ; some- 
thing that we may be able to understand, 
or at least begin to understand ; something 
positive, or at least more positive than we 
have yet seen. 

We want it, not for the vulgar reason of 
. a devouring curiosity, which desires to pry 
into everything that is concealed, simply 
because it is concealed ; not only in order 
that we may be able to think more intelli- 
gently of those who have gone before us, 
though this would be a legitimate and 
sufficient reason for such a desire ; but 
also for our own sakes, that it may be 
possible for us to look forward in a more 



56 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN viii 

intelligent way with a more distinct antici- 
pation, to the time when we too shall 
depart hence and be no more seen in this 
world. 

This want has long been felt; it has 
produced many attempts to describe the 
life of the other world. But some of them 
are very vague and very incomprehensible, 
adding in no degree to the understanding 
of the conditions of the other life ; others 
again are of such a kind as not to be 
attractive to any save the most spiritually 
minded ; while others are simply efforts to 
reproduce the scenery, the surroundings of 
this present life in its most lovely and 
delightsome aspects, investing them with 
the most glowing superlatives, yet leaving 
our thoughts no higher than our earthly 
material plane. 

These two schools contradict each other. 

It is not to be wondered at that this is 
so, indeed at present our ideas are in such 
a state of confusion that it could hardly be 
otherwise. 




VIII CONCERNING THE DEPARTED 57 

Let US begin at the beginning. There 
are, broadly speaking, two alternatives 
before us. 

1. We may think of our departed breth- 
ren as being near to us. In this case 
we must regard them as being invisible, — 
i.e. unseeable, — and also intangible, for 
it is a matter of common experience that 
we do not see them, and cannot, as a rule, 
perceive their presence by any test. From 
this point of view we are compelled to 
suppose that they are immaterial, so far at 
least as our appreciation of matter is con- 
cerned ; at all events they must be entirely 
different from ourselves. 

2. On the other hand, we may think of 
them as enjoying an existence not wholly 
different from our own.' This means that 
they are invested in some sort of material 
bodies, such as we can understand. In 
this case we are bound to think of them as 
being at a vast distance from us, a distance 
at all events sufficient to remove them 
from our sight, even when that is re- 



58 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN viii 

inforced by all the appliances with which 
science has endowed us. Their habitation 
in this case may be supposed to lie in some 
one of the stars or planets, as some have 
thought, but it cannot be near to us. 

In the present state of thought on this 
subject these two alternatives will practi- 
cally exhaust the possibilities of the situa- 
tion. For an ethereal or gaseous body, 
though it would technically answer to the 
description of a material form, is not such 
as we can contemplate with any satisfaction 
as a higher form of existence, nor can we 
comprehend, or even desire, the happiness 
of which according to our appreciation, 
such a body would be susceptible. 

Practically, I suppose, the majority of 
people are content to think of their de- 
parted as enjoying a real existence, i.e. 
real to their apprehension, without troub- 
ling themselves as to its character, and 
at the same time to regard them as 
l)eing in some indefinable way near to 
them, though, as we have seen, the two 



VIII CONCERNING THE DEPARTED 59 

things are incompatible; in a word they 
refuse to be influenced by a too rigorous 
attention to the logic of the case. 

But how very unsatisfactory this is. 
There are two alternatives, mutually ex- 
clusive, but in effect both are accepted at 
the same time. Is it possible to imagine 
a more hopeless confusion of thought ? 

We will endeavour to enquire impar- 
tially what we do know of the departed, 
what firm ground we have to go upon. If 
we can but grasp some facts, some solid 
facts, surely they will help us to come to 
some definite conclusion, some distinct con- 
ception about our departed brethren who 
have gone before us, and their condition. 

First, then, we have this Fact, that in 
the beginning GOD made man in His 
own Image, after His Likeness. He then 
gave to man the highest possible form. 

This Likeness has not been entirely 
lost, however much it has been defaced by 
sin. Of this we are assured by the fact 
that the Son of GOD was able to take 



6o THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN viii 

our nature upon Him when He came to 
dwell on Earth. 

Man being therefore in the highest, 
noblest form, there is no higher, nobler 
form that can be given to him. 

That is when he leaves this world, and 
passes into a higher state of being, he 
retains the Likeness of GOD, or in other 
words, he still has a form at least analogous 
to ours. If it were otherwise, in a higher 
state of being he would take a lower form. 
This cannot be admitted for a moment. 

So far we are supported by what S. 
John tells us in the Book of the Revela- 
tion, where we read that he saw the 
Redeemed clothed in white robes, wearing 
crowns on their heads, bearing palms in 
their hands, playing on instruments of 
music, and singing the new song. 

Here a number of points are enumer- 
ated as having been observed by the Apos- 
tle. All of them are consistent with the 
idea that those whom he saw were seen 
under the likeness of humanity, and so far 



I 



ii 



VIII CONCERNING THE DEPARTED 6 1 

as I am aware there is no suggestion to 
the contrary to be met with in any author- 
ity on the subject; at all events there is 
nothing in the account of the vision which 
gi\es any reason to suppose that the Re- 
deemed were noticeably different in their 
appearance from ourselves. 

This too we may note, that S. John was 
not a careless observer, for the careful 
details which he gives us of the appearance 
of other beings which were very different 
from anything that he was accustomed to 
see, prove to us that he noticed accurately 
what was presented to his eyes. 

We may therefore accept it as a fact 
that the Redeemed have forms analogous 
to ours, and that these forms are composed 
of some kind of material, which is a real 
material, even from the point of view of 
the unscientific man, a material which is 
not invisible or unseeable, for S. John did 
see them when he was in the position to 
do so. 

Let this be called Fact A, 



62 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN viii 

Side by side with this fact there is 
another which must be taken into consid- 
eration. It is this, that no one has ever 
seen a soul departing from the body ; and 
that there are but few who even claim 
that they have seen a Spirit-form unless 
it has been, as they say, materialised. 

This fact is in contradiction to the 
former fact. For if the departing soul is 
invisible to us, it cannot be material in 
such a sense as is required for our com- 
prehension of its conditions. 

It would therefore appear that the forms 
which S. John saw are to us invisible, that 
is, that it is impossible for us to see them. 
Let this be called Fact B. 

To reconcile these two facts, A and B, 
without doing violence to either of them, 
or rather to find some conception which 
will include them both, is a task which is 
very difficult at present. 

I suppose that the following will be 
accepted as a fair account of the usually 
received solution of the difficulty. 



VIII CONCERNING THE DEPARTED 63 

S. John was " in the Spirit." He there- 
fore was able to see other spirits, but we 
cannot do so. 

Pressing the question, Why not? we 
shall be told that a "spirit" is invisible to 
us, that a " spiritual " body cannot be seen 
except by '' spiritual " eyes. 

This cannot be accepted as a conclusive 
answer. What do we know of a " spirit " 
that we dare to say so positively that it is 
and must be invisible to us ? 

What is a "spirit".^ 

To answer that it is an existence, an 
essence, that it is ethereal, immaterial, im- 
palpable, imperceptible by any tests, that 
for all we know the air may be full of 
" spirits," even thickly crowded with them, 
while we have no appreciation of their 
presence, all this is to veil in a cloud of 
words, and mostly negative, and if not 
negative very vague, the confession that 
we really know nothing about a " spirit," 
that a " spirit " is to us inconceivable, that 
we have no words by which to describe it, 



64 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN viii 

and in fact no clear ideas concerning it to 
be described. 

Granting for a moment that this vague 
description is all that we can hope for, 
and that it is true as far as it goes, that 
this ethereal, rarefied, or immaterial exist- 
ence has a form that can be recognised by 
its brother existences, we are still com- 
pelled to enquire. Of what kind are its 
pleasures ? its functions ? its means of 
expression ? 

To reply that the pleasures of a 
" spirit " are " spiritual " pleasures ; that 
the functions of a " spirit " are " spiritual " 
functions ; and the employments of a 
" spirit " are " spiritual " employments, is 
all that can be said. Of course it will be 
added that these '' spiritual " evidences of 
life are far higher, far purer than those of 
which we have any experience ; but that 
does not carry us any farther in the under- 
standing of the conditions of spirits. Such 
amplifications are not elucidations, they 
are only comments, arising from a reverent 



VIII CONCERNING THE DEPARTED 65 

desire to express the undoubted fact that 
the conditions of the departed in Paradise 
are better than ours here on Earth, while 
still leaving the question of the manner of 
their superiority unsettled. As a matter 
of fact all this tells us nothing, it simply 
leaves us where we were. 

What we want is something definite, 
something that we may lay hold of. We 
cannot be really satisfied by the echoing 
backwards and forwards of the words 
"spirit" and "spiritual." 

When we bless GOD'S Holy Name 
for those that are departed this life in 
His faith and fear, we want to have some- 
thing in our minds for which we can 
thank Him intelligently, something that 
we may not only believe, but also 
understand to be better than what went 
before. 

When we look forward to future happi- 
ness for ourselves, we want to see some- 
thing before us which we can recognise 
as being better than what we have. In 



66 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN viii 

a word we do want to know something 
about the conditions of the other world. 

If this be proved to be impossible we 
must be content to believe as we have 
believed, that those conditions are better 
than our present conditions ; and to wait 
as we have waited, until we reach the 
farther shore. 

But I cannot think that this is neces- 
sary, I am persuaded that it is possible 
for us to know a great deal about the con- 
ditions of the other world; I think that 
we have a right to expect this knowledge, 
and therefore I am sure that we do no 
wrong if we try to find out and formulate 
much concerning them. 

Yet how can this reasonable desire be 
gratified so long as we have the two Facts 
A and B before us? One of them seems 
to describe an existence which is real to 
our comprehension, since it is not wholly 
different to our own; the other practically 
contradicts it, and gives only in its place, 
the words " spirit " and " spiritual " which 



VIII CONCERNING THE DEPARTED 67 

we do not understand, which we cannot 
even begin to understand, which there- 
fore represent what is to us an unreal 
existence. 

By the first fact we are encouraged to 
beheve that there is a real continuity be- 
tween the present state of being and the 
future state, such as all experience of our 
progress, physical, mental, spiritual leads us 
to expect. A development, an evolution it 
may be, but still however great the advance, 
along the same lines as those to which we 
are accustomed. 

The second fact seems to speak of a 
violent breach in this continuity, a tremen- 
dous dislocation, a revolution instead of an 
evolution, in all the aspects of our being. 
It demands a fresh start, from a new stand- 
point, in an entirely new state of things, 
in which ''spirits," concerning which noth- 
ing can be predicated, pass their time 
in " spiritual " employments, performing 
" spiritual " functions, enjoying " spiritual '' 
pleasures, all of which are of another 



68 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN viii 

order from anything with which we are 
acquainted, and therefore convey to our 
minds no idea at all. 

I think that the idea of Higher Space 
supplies the necessary link between the 
facts A and B, and reconciles them. 

We have understood that we cannot 
point in the direction of this Space, since 
it lies in the Fourth Direction which is 
unknown to us. We cannot by means of 
any of our senses penetrate into that 
Space, nor can any of our senses reveal to 
us anything that goes on within it. It 
is however to be reached from any point 
in our world, without passing through 
any other point in our world, by a move- 
ment in the Fourth Direction, which is 
first perceived when the limitations of 
the body are removed. 

Suppose that the soul, when it parts 
from the body, passes into the Higher 
Space along the line of the Fourth Direc- 
tion, and at once we find room for the two 
Facts A and B which before seemed to 



VIII CO^XERNING THE DEPARTED 69 

be opposed to each other, and even 
mutually exclusive. 

This we proceed to shew. 

The suggestion is that at the moment 
of dissolution the personality of the dying 
man is transferred into the Higher Space. 

From what has been said above it 
appears that in the Higher Space there is 
an indefinitely extended expanse in which 
the true person of the man takes up its 
habitation. His powers and faculties are 
not lost. On the contrary they are in- 
finitely increased, and as by our hypoth- 
esis this Higher Space is not empty but 
furnished with all that is necessary or 
even desirable for those who live in it, 
we are able to think of the departed as 
enjoying what is to our minds a real exist- 
ence, with real forms, analogous to ours, 
and near to us. This gives room for 
Fact A. 

The movement of the person in order 
to reach the Higher Space has been along 
an Unseen path into the Unseen World. 



70 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN viii 

Therefore during the passage he is not 
seen. This gives room for Fact B. 

Here, then, is a simple means of recon- 
ciHng two facts which seemed to be in 
hopeless antagonism, a simple conception 
which includes them both, and exhibits 
them as being complementary to each 
other, instead of opposed to each other. 

If now we think of our departed, we 
may rightly think of them as being in 
forms not wholly unlike our own ; that is, 
forms such as we can consider as being 
real, not shadowy, nor immaterial ; and at 
the same time we need not think of them 
as being at an infinite distance from us, 
although they are in a state in which 
all their powers are enormously, even 
infinitely increased, extended, and de- 
veloped. 

Here I must pause to guard against a 
possible misunderstanding or misconcep- 
tion. I am not to be understood as wish- 
ing to do away with the terms spirit and 
spiritual. The use of them is so common 



VIII CONCERNING THE DEPARTED 7 1 

in Holy Writ that it is perhaps almost 
unnecessary to say so ; but I do desire to 
protest emphatically against what I feel 
to be an abuse of these terms which gives 
the impression of something which we 
cannot recognise as being real, but on 
the contrary seems to describe what is very 
misty, very vague, and very much like a 
dream of the imagination. 

I would submit that these words " spirit " 
and " spiritual " should be understood as 
describing a connection with Higher 
Space; while "body" and "bodily" de- 
scribe a connection with our Lower Space. 

It may be that some will think that this 
is rather premature, or at least that it is 
merely the substitution of one set of words 
for another. But I venture to hope that 
a greater familiarity with the thought of 
Higher Space will tend to the recognition 
of the fact that the substitution is of some- 
thing thinkable for something unthinkable ; 
of something concrete for something ab- 
stract; in a word of something, however 



72 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN viii 

far beyond the reach of our senses, for 
what is practically no-thing. 

In any case this is the sense in which 
the terms will be used in this essay, and 
therefore it is well that they should be 
defined as soon as possible. If it is found 
that this use of the words is not strained 
nor artificial, but natural, this will go a 
long way towards justifying it. 

Now comes the question, Does this 
theory throw any light upon the condition 
of the Departed ? Does it in any way 
enable us to comprehend anything of their 
state ? 

At all events this much has been arrived 
at, as we have proceeded, that we have 
seen a conceivable habitation for them in 
which we may think of them as dwelling 
in what are to us real bodies, with real 
powers, amid real surroundings, of which 
none are so utterly different from what we 
are accustomed to as that we cannot 
appreciate them. 

This is so far satisfactory in itself; and 



VIII CONCERNING THE DEPARTED 73 

since it agrees with what an unsophisti- 
cated mind would naturally expect (witness 
the beliefs of simple practical people like 
our far-off ancestors, and others), the satis- 
faction is increased. 

Moreover, it agrees with the principle 
of Continuity, which leads us to expect 
that when the boundary of this world is 
passed the stream of life will not be 
violently interrupted or turned into an- 
other channel; and that the tendencies 
which have been blamelessly forming in 
our present life will not be reversed or 
thrown on one side as useless, but that 
all that is good will be preserved and 
strengthened. 

Our theory tells us also that when one 
passes from us into the Higher Space, his 
sphere and power of action and sensation 
is indefinitely, even infinitely, enlarged. 
What is to us the unknown direction is 
perfectly well known to him, and all his 
faculties and aptitudes become adapted in 
accordance with this enlargement. 



74 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN viii 

A little consideration will make the 
bearing of this evident. If we were to 
picture to ourselves such a condition as 
would be represented by perfect health of 
body and mind and soul ; that, even in our 
World, our Space, would be most enviable. 
It would seem to offer such transcendently 
wonderful possibilities of growth, and prog- 
ress in knowledge, art, and grace, as to 
constitute a veritable Utopia. 

But even so we should be compelled to 
recognise the existence of a bar to progress 
beyond a certain limit. Death places a 
boundary beyond which, in this stage of 
our existence, nothing can be touched. 
In this state of being, maturity is only 
the herald of decay ; by accident, or it 
may be, by Euthanasia, the terminus of 
activity must sooner or later be reached 
even under the most favourable conditions 
imaginable. 

This is a difficulty inherent in the very 
foundations of our physical existence. Our 
body, with its necessary infirmities sets 



VIII CO^XERXING THE DEPARTED 75 

a limit even to our aspirations. In some 
cases the limit of time, in others the limit 
of endurance, in others again the limit 
of expression. However healthy the con- 
ditions may be, the mind which is the 
more excellent partner in the firm, is con- 
stantly reminded of the imperfections of 
its associate the body; and strive how 
it may, it cannot educate it up to its re- 
quirements ; however reluctantly, it is com- 
pelled to acknowledge that it cannot 
dissolve the partnership in this life, and 
must abide by the conditions of the asso- 
ciation. 

In the Higher Space this is no longer 
so, the weaker partner has been retired; 
the body, that is the mortal body, is no 
longer a drag on the mind, the corruptible 
elements have been shaken off, there is 
no more decay; death having done its 
utmost has but dissolved the partnership, 
and so removed the hindrance to farther 
progress. 

And more, the condition of the Departed 



76 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN viii 

of whom we speak is rightly described as 
a holy state ; and this qualification means 
nothing less than that they are in a con- 
dition of perfect health, and indefectible. 
All the diseases, of the mind and soul are 
cured; and as time goes on the constitution 
itself, which has suffered during the time of 
probation here on earth, becomes stronger 
and stronger, instead of failing, as it does 
with us. 

As a consequence boundless possibilities 
at once appear. Not only is the intellect 
set free from what has been a clog upon it, 
not only are the limits of time, endurance, 
and expression set back indefinitely, but 
more, far more, than that is found to have 
been accomplished. 

Push back to the utmost limits the 
thought of what might be in this world 
under such conditions ; let the mind revel 
in imagination of the potentialities revealed 
in such circumstances, still even such im- 
aginations are totally inadequate to de- 
scribe what is in Higher Space. 



VIII CONCERNING THE DEPARTED "]"] 

There, in the state of Greater Freedom, 
many of the compHcations which perplex 
us are seen to be but parts of a simple 
whole which we cannot discern. What are 
to us independent and isolated phenomena 
without any apparent connection with each 
other are plainly seen in their true and 
harmonious relationships. There, laws 
which have been painfully determined here, 
are seen to be no more than particular 
statements of special cases, easily to be 
deduced from higher laws which w^e cannot 
perceive. There too, things which we 
regard as utterly impossible are not only 
natural, but matters of course; what we 
call miracles, of everyday occurrence. 

The idea that the habitation of the 
Departed is at an infinite distance, or at 
least at a very great distance, is so in- 
grained in many minds that it is necessary 
to repeat that the Higher Space is not to 
be reached by gazing into the depths of 
our own Space. The telescope brings us 
no nearer. It lies close to us on every 



78 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN viii 

side. There is absolutely no distance 
between us and the boundary of that 
Space. There is nothing which can inter- 
pose between us and the Higher Space. 

Some gruesome stories of persons who 
have been buried alive recur to our memo- 
ries. Enclosed as they were in shell, in 
lead, in casket, each made as carefully 
as possible, how does the spirit escape .^^ 
Through these envelopes ? Through the 
superincumbent earth ? Not so. There 
is no barrier between them as they lie in 
the grave and the Higher Space. There 
is an open side of which we can know 
nothing save that it does exist, through 
which and by which the spirit passes 
into the Higher Space. A closed box is 
a prison from our point of view, but it is 
not so from the point of view of Higher 
Space. 

This statement must be regarded as 
carrying us up to the limit of what can be 
said at present, but it is imperfect, and 
therefore we shall have to recur to this 



i 



vm CONCERNING THE DEPARTED 79 

question later, when some further princi- 
ples have been developed. Enough has 
been said however for us to recognise the 
immensity of the gain that comes to those 
who have departed this life in the faith and 
fear of GOD ; and the vastness of the 
change which they experience, who, having 
learnt in this life that with all their studies, 
all their investigations they can but know 
in part, and that a very small part, have 
now the door of higher knowledge opened 
wide before them, where they can enter in, 
and rejoice in their opportunities, and in 
their power of using them to the full. 



IX 

CONCERNING THE VISION OF THE 
RISEN LORD 

Let us take two more facts, which, like 
the Facts A and B, appear at first sight 
to be in opposition to each other. 

Our Blessed Lord, when He rose again 
from death, took again His Body with 
flesh, bones, and all things appertaining 
to the perfection of man's nature. 

Still wearing that Body He ascended 
up into Heaven, and there dwells, being 
now as truly in the form of man as He 
was while He walked the Earth. 

Now the human Body of our Lord, 
with flesh, bones, and all things appertain- 
ing to the perfection of man's nature, 
cannot be invisible, i,e. unseeable, if It be 

80 



IX THE VISION OF THE RISEN LORD 8 1 

within the range of vision. Real flesh on 
real bones must be visible if it be within 
the reach of sight. And as we have seen, 
the Risen Body of our Lord was and is 
a real body; for It was the same Body 
in which He went about, in which He 
suffered the pains of Death, that He took 
again, and not another or a phantasmic 
form. 

S. Paul in i Cor. xv. details a number 
of appearances of our Lord after His 
Resurrection to various persons ; then he 
adds, " Last of all He was seen of me 
also," using the same w^ord to describe his 
own experience and that of those who saw 
Him during the Forty days between His 
Resurrection and His Ascension. 

There is not the slightest suggestion 
that there was any difference in the kind 
of manifestation before and after the 
Ascension. 

Again S. Stephen, having his eyes open, 
saw Him and knew Him. So did S. Paul, 
on his journey to Damascus. So did 



82 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN ix 

S. John in the great vision of the Apoc- 
alypse.^ And among our most cherished 
beliefs is this, that we too, in the fulness 
of time shall see Him, and know Him, the 
same Jesus Whom the Apostles saw going 
up into Heaven; and this — that He hav- 
ing entered Heaven as the Son of Man, 
has opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all 
believers among the sons of man. 

Now, with regard to the two former of 
the Appearances which have been quoted, 
we note that they were vouchsafed to 
chosen men, not alone, but in the midst 
of many others. But they only saw Him. 
The rest of those standing round saw 
nothing. This is specially stated in the 
case of S. Paul, where we read that his 
companions heard a voice but saw no man. 
And in the other case the same conclu- 
sion is more than suggested, since from 
the course of the narrative it is evident 
that none of the meeting save S. Stephen 
saw the heavens open. 

^ See Note at the end of the Section. 



IX THE VISION OF THE RISEN LORD 83 

We have then two facts which are in 
opposition to each other. The first that 
the Body of our Lord is a real Body. Let 
this be called Fact C. 

The second that on two occasions He 
was seen by one man, while those who 
stood round did not and could not see 
Him. Let this be called Fact D. 

How are these two Facts to be recon- 
ciled .^^ or rather how are they to be ex- 
plained together? 

It is not enough to assume that the 
Resurrection Body of our Lord is a " spir- 
itual " body in the common acceptation of 
the term, and to say that one of the prop- 
erties of a spiritual body is that it can 
become visible or invisible at will. For 
the introduction of the word spiritual ex- 
cludes Fact C altogether ; since a spiritual 
body of which nothing can be predicated, 
nothing proved or disproved, is not what 
we understand by a real human body. 
And beside, seeing that we have no knowl- 
edge of any process by which a real human 



84 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN ix 

body can be at one and the same time vis- 
ible to one person and not to other persons 
looking in the same direction, the "spir- 
itual " supposition only introduces a new 
complication, instead of making the matter 
easier to understand. As a matter of fact, 
if It could do this It would not be what 
we mean by a true human body at all. 
And to endeavour to insist on this is to 
deprive words of their meaning, and to land 
us in a hopeless obscurity. 

But if we bring the theory of Higher 
Space to bear, the two Facts C and D at 
once fall into line, and room is found for 
both of them. 

Now we can understand that it was not 
the Body of the Lord that underwent a 
change, but that the change was effected 
by an additional power given to those who 
saw It; their eyes were opened, and the 
power of seeing into the Higher Space 
which was not imparted to their compan- 
ions, was given to them for a special pur- 
pose. They were permitted to see what 



IX THE VISION OF THE RISEN LORD 85 

is. Even as S. John in the island of 
Patmos was permitted to see what is, 
though it is hidden from our eyes. Even 
as also the servant of the prophet Elisha 
was permitted to see what is, though we 
cannot see it. 

All this follows naturally from the defi- 
nition of the Higher Space, which teaches 
us that we cannot ordinarily see anything 
that is in that Space, because we do not 
know in what direction to look for it, and 
also because our senses are only adapted 
for use in our own Space. 

Accepting this as a true definition we 
are able to see how the real human Body 
of our Lord should be seen by some and 
not by others at the same time, without 
any unnatural imaginings as to visibility 
and invisibility as the property of a "spir- 
itual " body. 

This adds force to the results of the 
previous discussion, since now we are con- 
sidering a Body not only formed of matter 
of some kind, concerning which we do not 



86 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN ix 

venture to dogmatise, of which we can 
only say that it is such as is real to us ; 
but One of which we know that It is a 
real human Body, with all things apper- 
taining to the perfection of man's nature. 
And this Body may, as we have seen, be 
conceived as being in the Higher Space, 
the only place where we can think of It 
intelligently, while bearing in mind that 
It is near to us. 

Remembering this there is far less diffi- 
culty in accepting the statements regard- 
ing the bodies and forms of the Departed, 
since we have found that the same prin- 
ciples as were quoted in their case are 
applicable in the case of an admittedly 
solid body. 

NOTE 

A very strong corroboration of our theory is to be 
found in Rev. i. lo, and iv. i, 2, so strong indeed as 
to be almost startling. 

This shews itself first of all in the repeated state- 
ment of S. John that on the two occasions, the former 
when he was privileged to see the Lord and to receive 
from Him the charge to write the Epistles to the 



IX THE VISION OF THE RISEN LORD 87 

Seven Churches, the latter when he was permitted to 
be a witness of the Worship of Heaven, a change took 
place in him which he describes as being '' IN THE 
SPIRIT" or becoming "IN THE SPIRIT." 

Bearing in mind the definition given above as to 
the meaning of the word Spirit, this at once suggests 
that S. John was received into a Higher Space. Is 
this suggestion justifiable ? 

We will first run quickly through the various points 
which support this suggestion, and then add to the 
summary what may seem to be necessary. 

j. Behold, a door opened in heaven, i.e. a means 
of access was perceived by which a new region might 
be reached. 

ij. This means of access was perceived by a new 
power of sight which was imparted to the observer, 
a power that was so wonderful that in comparison 
with it his sight at other times was blindness. The 
expression used is this I SAW. 

iij. Straightway, in obedience to the call come up 
hither, I was in the spirit, or as the Arabic version 
has it I went in the spirit. The journey was of no 
long duration, for it was accomplished immediately, 
the distance was traversed in a moment. 

We are able at once to interpret this. 

The door represents the new Direction to which 
the Apostle had been insensible before, it was the 
Direction of a Higher Space. 

The new power of vision was the power of perceiv- 
ing the things in that region of Higher Space. 

The journey was the short translation into Higher 



88 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN ix 

Space, which as we have seen is in immediate contact 
with our Space at every point. 

It is not difficult to produce considerations in sup- 
port of the foregoing. 

j. The name of the Book in which we read these 
things is The Apocalypse. That is the Uncovering, 
or the Revelation. Taken in the natural sense, either 
of these words tells us that there was something that 
was uncovered, from which a veil was withdrawn. 
That is, that what was seen was real, not only a 
picture of what was real. 

ij. The use of the verb to see in the intransitive 
voice followed by the word " behold " points in the 
same direction. This may be illustrated by a com- 
parison with I Kings vi. 17, where in the LXX. the 
same use of the word is found. There we are able 
to recognise the full significance of the expression. 
For in that case we feel no doubt that what was seen 
by the servant of EUsha was real, and not only so but 
that it was what he would have seen at any time, 
though perhaps not on so large a scale, if his eyes 
had been always open. What he saw was the Angelic 
guard that is stationed by our Father round about 
His people. His children, for their protection. This, 
as will be seen, in the Higher Space. 

iij. With this may be compared the use of the 
word Seer, as applied at different times to prophets. 
Who by the power of GOD were enabled to see what 
was hidden from the eyes of others. 

iv. The vision of the Adoration of heaven may be 
compared with the visions of Ezekiel and Isaiah, 



IX THE VISION OF THE RISEN LORD 89 

which are strikingly similar ; this comparison tends 
to shew that what they all saw is what is going on 
constantly in heaven. 

In order to accept these conclusions we have to 
get rid of a certain amount of prejudice, and that not 
of a merely modern date, for in Acts xii. 9, we read 
'' He wist not that it was true which was done by 
the angel, but thought he saw a vision." But this 
difficulty is not insuperable ; more especially when 
we remember such expressions as the following, about 
the little book which in the course of the vision was 
eaten by S. John, " It was in my mouth as sweet as 
honey, and as soon as I had eaten it my belly was 
bitter." Here in the natural acceptation of the words 
we read a description of a real experience, that is 
when without prejudice we study the language of the 
text. 

As a matter of fact it is not to be thought that a 
vision is in any sense unreal ; there is already a dis- 
tinction observed in the popular use of the expres- 
sions "vision" and "dream," at least to this extent 
that a "vision" is supposed to mean something more 
real than a "dream"; it is not of course always 
properly applied, but it is none the less recognised. 

Speaking accurately, a vision is the seeing of some- 
thing. The word is not a synonym for a dream or an 
imagination. 



X 



THE APPEARANCE OF OUR SPACE TO THOSE 
IN HIGHER SPACE 

Before we proceed to the discussion of 
a third pair of facts, there is another prin- 
ciple which must be established. 

It follows directly from the definition of 
Space of Four Directions. It is this, that 
to beings in the Higher Space our Space 
with all that it contains, presents itself as 
a thin film. 

This is a very important point, which 
needs to be carefully considered. 

By definition the World of the Unseen 
lies in an Unknown Direction. That 
is to say, we can draw no line which, 
however far produced, will penetrate into 

90 



X OUR SPACE APPEARS AS A FILM 9 1 

that Higher Space. If we could do so 
that Direction would not be unknown. 

From this it follows that any straight 
line drawn in that Space towards our 
Space, will only pass through one point 
in our Space. 

If it could pass through more than one 
point we should know its direction, since 
two points on a straight line are sufficient 
to determine the direction of that line. 

Therefore, as we cannot determine the 
direction of any straight line passing 
through our Space to the Higher Space, 
such a line can only pass through one 
point in our Space. 

Or in other words, a dweller in the 
Higher Space will look upon our Space 
as having only the thickness of one 
atom. 

This is such a difficult conception that 
we will spend a little more time upon it. 
We must not expect to be able to realise 
exactly what this means in relation to 
ourselves ; it is enough if we are content 



92 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN x 

to know that it is so. We may try to 
help ourselves by saying that we present 
the same appearance to the dwellers in 
the Higher Space as any possible inhabi- 
tants of Space of Two Directions would 
present to us, but that does not take us 
much farther. The important thing is, 
not to understand, but to accept the 
principle which lies at the foundation of 
the conception of Higher Space, and then 
to use it and see whether or no the results 
which follow are such as recommend them- 
selves to our intelligence. 

The principle may, however, be illus- 
trated in this way. 

Suppose that one end of a rod were 
placed against a small aperture in a parti- 
tion, in such a way as that only the 
extremity should be visible, then the rod 
itself might be turned about in any way 
by a person behind the screen, while we 
should have no power of saying what 
position it occupied at any time. One 
point only of the rod is seen by us, and 



4 



X OUR SPACE APPEARS AS A FILM 93 

that gives no indication of the position 
of the rest of it. 

From the point of view of dwellers in 
the Higher Space we have our physical 
existence actually in the partition which 
is of an indefinitely small thickness to 
their perception, not of course methemati- 
cally a plane or surface, since that has 
no thickness at all, but physically to be 
regarded as of the thickness of an atom, 
that is practically the thickness of a soap- 
bubble just before it bursts. This being 
our situation, the rod of which we spoke 
may be turned about in an infinite number 
of directions, while we, who are only able 
to see one point of it, are unconscious of 
any change of position. 

We are not now concerned with any 
questions as to the position of ourselves 
with regard to this film, whatever that 
may be it does not affect us in any way, 
what we are, we are ; and the fact that 
we appear to others in a fashion different 
from that in which we are accustomed 



94 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN x 

to think of ourselves does not alter or 
change our present position, though it 
may lead us to see that it is not neces- 
sarily such as we have thought it to be ; 
and even though the idea presented to us 
may and does seem very strange, still it 
is no more than a translation of the fact 
which was noted before, that the Higher 
Space is contiguous to every point in a 
Lower Space, the which was definitely 
proved first in passing from Space of One 
Direction to Space of Two Directions; 
next in passing from Space of Two Direc- 
tions to Space of Three Directions, and 
then in passing from Space of Three 
Directions to Space of Four Directions. 

It is no doubt a strange conception, 
contrary to all our ideas about ourselves, 
contrary to our ideas about our Space, 
our Universe, which stretches away so j 
far in Three Directions, and seems to be * 
so large in all directions with which we j 
are acquainted ; but for all that there can 
be no doubt as to the truth of what has 



X OUR SPACE APPEARS AS A FILM 95 

been stated, and the fact that we cannot 
understand it is not to be wondered at, 
since if we could do so we should have 
escaped from the limitations of our Space, 
and the Fourth Direction would be known. 

The results of the application of this 
principle are very far-reaching, as we shall 
see in a short time ; but even the nearest, 
which is obvious, is of great value ; for at 
once we perceive a measure of the exceed- 
ingly Greater Freedom of those who, 
having been transferred from our Space 
into the Higher Space, now regard their 
past conditions and surroundings as be- 
ing so cramped and circumscribed. The 
enlargement of which they are so happily 
conscious is made more evident to us by 
the comparison. 

To this enlargement, this Greater Free- 
dom, we too look forward. And if for no 
other reason than this, that we are thus 
enabled to figure to ourselves a rational 
idea of this Greater Freedom, it is worth 
while to try to familiarise our minds with 



96 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN x 

this representation of our present state, 
and become acquainted with the narrow- 
ness of our present bounds. 

But there is more than this to be learnt 
from the appHcation of this principle, as we 
shall now proceed to shew. 



XI 

THE MINISTRY OF THE ANGELS 

Let us consider the ministry of the 
Angels. 

In this case as before we are confronted 
by two facts, which a priori seem to be 
opposed to each other. 

The former of these two facts is this, 
that the Angels are concerned in our 
affairs, and give assistance to us, having 
received a charge concerning us to keep 
us in all our ways, lest at any time we 
dash our foot against a stone. Let us 
call this Fact E. 

The second Fact is this, that we never 
see an Angel, and that we never con- 
sciously feel an Angel's touch. Let us 
call this Fact F. 

97 



98 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN 



XI 



In this case the explanation that the 
forms of Angels are " spiritual " forms, 
and their bodies " spiritual '' bodies, and 
their ministrations " spiritual " ministra- 
tions, does not really shew itself. For 
if the Angels are such that we cannot feel 
their touch, what can they do for us in 
any physical sense at all ? 

The practical acknowledgment of this 
difificulty is to be seen in the very slight 
importance that is attached, popularly, to 
the ministry of the Angels ; and how 
clearly the difficulty is recognised is 
shewn in this that the idea of Angelic 
interposition in our affairs is largely 
treated as superstitious, and that in spite 
of Fact E. This is evidently wrong, for 
there are few things more clearly to be 
read in the Bible than this, that our 
Father does send His servants the Angels 
to minister to us His children. 

But how are we to receive the two 
Facts E and F at the same time ? 

Again the theory of Higher Space 



XI THE MINISTRY OF THE ANGELS 99 

offers the answer. The sphere of the 
operations of the Angels is, generally 
speaking, in Higher Space. We cannot 
therefore see them, nor can we, according 
to our definition, feel their touch, since our 
senses are only adapted for the perception of 
sensations coming to us in our own Space. 
It is not however necessary that even 
physically we should imagine ourselves 
open only to influences coming to us in 
our Space. We have seen that every 
particle of our bodies is in the most 
immediate contact with Higher Space. 
From thence then the Angels may touch 
us and bear us up in their hands, while yet 
we are unconscious of their touch as a 
touch, only being able to recognise it by 
its effects. They have touched us in 
such a way as no person or thing in our 
Space can touch us ; therefore we have 
not recognised the touch by any feeling 
that we know; it has been applied on a 
side which we know not, and still it has 
been effectual. 



XII 

so FAR THE PROPOSITION HAS NOT PROVED 
UNREASONABLE 

So far then the theory that it is in 
Higher Space that we shall find a solution 
of many difficulties has stood its ground. 

Three pairs of facts A and B, C and 
D, E and F, which at first sight appeared 
to be in antagonism as regards their com- 
ponents, have joined hands, and are seen 
to be in harmony with each other. 

It may be said with confidence that it 
is not unreasonable to describe the Higher 
Space as the abode of our Departed 
brethren, of the Angels, and of our Lord 
Himself. That in this way we may 
rationally think of our Departed brethren 
as being in forms at least analogous to 



XII PROPOSITION NOT UNREASONABLE lOI 

our own; with powers not of an utterly 
different character from our own, though 
very highly developed ; with opportunities 
of employment and enjoyment suited to 
those powers, and therefore not wholly 
beyond our understanding. That it is 
not unreasonable to think of the Angels 
great in power and might, as having their 
habitation in the Higher Space, from 
which and in which they both can and do 
assist us in accordance with our Father's 
will. That it is not unreasonable to think 
of our Lord Himself, still in the form of 
man, with all things appertaining to the 
perfection of man's nature, as dwelling in 
the Higher Space, and as being actually 
present with us when we are met together 
in His Name, as He has promised, though 
we cannot see Him. 

If it be objected that all this depends 
on an unknown Direction, let it be con- 
sidered that if it were pretended that there 
was nothing unknown about it the theory 
would stand self-condemned since we are 



I02 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xii 

dealing with the unknown. And farther, 
that if this unknown direction, which at 
least is definite and confined to the one 
direction, helps us to understand some- 
thing of what is not only unknown but 
also indefinite, it has strong claims on our 
attention. Moreover, this is but one un- 
known, whereas before there were many ; 
and this unknown brings harmony where 
there was nothing but confusion before- 
time. 

If these three points were all in which 
the theory could help us, it might not 
unreasonably be suspected still. But if it 
shall be found that it is of great assistance 
to us in a variety of other ways, we shall 
have a greater confidence in it. 



XIII 

CONCERNING THE OMNISCIENCE OF 
ALMIGHTY GOD 

Let us now apply our theory to the 
consideration of far higher problems. 

Take the last principle that has been 
quoted, that to an inhabitant of the Higher 
Space this world and all that it contains 
is seen as a thin film, so that every part of 
it is open to inspection. 

GOD dwells in Higher Space. 

Here then we have a comprehensible 
interpretation of the fact that to Him all 
hearts are open, all desires known, from 
Him no secrets hid, since thus all things 
are seen to be naked and opened to Him 
with Whom we have to do. 

This statement may seem to be imper- 
103 



104 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xiii 

feet, sinee so far as we have gone, it is 
only with physical questions that we have 
concerned ourselves; and it might well 
appear that molecular changes do not 
account for all that goes on within us, in 
our hearts, etc. ; but putting this aside for 
the present with the intention of returning 
to it later, we may note that this way of 
looking at the Omniscience of GOD takes 
us a step farther back than any other view 
of the matter, and gives us a reason of the 
faith that is in us as to the perfect Knowl- 
edge of all things which we are accus- 
tomed, and rightly accustomed, to associate 
with the mind of GOD. 

To speak of Him as the Unconditioned, 
is to use a phrase which, however true it 
is, is terribly hard to realise; to regard 
Him as pervading all things, and penetrat- 
ing all things in virtue of His Almighty 
power, is a conception which is difficult 
indeed to grasp; to think of Him as a 
" Spirit " in the ordinary acceptation of the 
word, to Whom all things are possible — 



XIII OMNISCIENCE OF ALMIGHTY GOD IO5 

because we cannot know what a " spirit " 
is, and therefore cannot deny anything 
that may be said about it — is to involve 
ourselves in obscurity. 

But when we are able to see HOW He 
is infinitely near to every point of every- 
thing in Heaven and in Earth, then the 
cloud that rested over our ideas of Him is 
lifted, and we are able, at least in some 
degree, to understand how it is that He 
knows all things ; to perceive how His 
attribute of Omniscience arises. 



XIV 

YET HIGHER SPACES 

So far I have been speaking in a general 
way of Higher Space ; carefully avoiding 
the mention of the Fourth Direction as 
far as possible, after the time when the 
principles were enumerated which the first 
consideration of it yielded to us. 

I have done this for two reasons. First 
because it was desirable to complicate 
matters as little as possible; and secondly 
because by refraining from more particular 
expressions it was possible to present the 
arguments based on the three pairs of 
Facts A and B, C and D, E and F 
together. 

But now at this point it is necessary to 
go farther, and to recognise a very wide 

1 06 



XIV YET HIGHER SPACES IO7 

extension of the idea of Higher Space, 
which is by no means exhausted when we 
have reached the conception of Space of 
Four Directions. 

There is no new difficulty introduced ; 
when we have accepted the idea of a 
Fourth Direction in addition to the 
Three with which we are acquainted, 
the Higher Directions follow easily. Or 
in other words, when we have recognised 
the existence of Space of Four Dimen- 
sions there is no greater strain called 
for in the recognition of the existence 
of Space of Five Dimensions, and so on 
up to Space of an infinite number of 
Dimensions. 

The same methods which have led us 
from Space of One Direction through 
Space of Two Directions, from thence to 
Space of Three Directions, and through 
that to Space of Four Directions, will lead 
us on to Space of Five Directions, and so 
on indefinitely. 

The same principles that we have 



I08 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xiv 

observed concerning the relation of Space 
of Two Directions to Space of One Di- 
rection, the relation of Space of Three 
Directions to that of Two, the relation 
of Space of Four Directions to that of 
Three, hold good with regard to the 
relations of Space of Five Directions 
with Space of Four Directions, and so 
on indefinitely. 

To think therefore of Space of many 
more Directions than Four calls for no 
new effort. When the first step has been 
taken the others follow naturally. 

Each Space then in the ascending scale 
of numeration is in the most immediate 
juxtaposition with every point in the next 
Lower Space. Or translating this in the 
general case as we have done in a special 
case, it comes to this, that to one dwelling 
in a Higher Space the Space immediately 
below it in order appears as a thin Film, 
in which all objects occupy the whole 
thickness of the Film. And though it is 
impossible even to begin to imagine what 



XIV YET HIGHER SPACES IO9 

the appearance of a material object in our 
Space may be to an observer in a much 
Higher Space, still it is evident that to 
him is presented a still more infinitely 
perfect view of its constituents than to an 
observer in any Lower region of Space. 
While to an eye in the Highest Space of 
all, an infinitely perfect revealing of the 
most hidden and secret things is of neces- 
sity presented. 

This emphasises very strongly what has 
been said about the Omniscience of GOD. 
For He, dwelling in the Highest Space 
of all, not only has this perfect view of 
all the constituents of our being, but also 
is most infinitely near to every point and 
particle of our whole constitution. So 
that in the most strictly physical sense 
it is true that in Him "we live and move 
and have our being." 

And then, regarding GOD as dwelling 
in the Highest Space of all, by the simple 
recollection of our definition that each 
Space is to those dwelling in an Inferior 



no THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xiv 

Space in an unknown direction, we under- 
stand how it is that none can see GOD, 
that none can reach His dwelling-place, 
nor know where it is situated, while yet 
He is absolutely near to us. 



XV 

CONCERNING THE OMNIPOTENCE OF 
GOD 

But this is not all. We have seen some- 
thing of the manner of the Omniscience of 
GOD, and of His Omnipresence. Now 
if we make use of one of the principles 
which we noted from the beginning, we 
learn something of the manner of His 
Omnipotence. 

It will be remembered that in discussing 
the conditions and the state of the De- 
parted, we saw that they are freed from 
the limitations which of necessity are asso- 
ciated with our Lower Space. Many of 
our disabilities no longer exist for them, 
they are no longer subject to the restric- 
tions of our Lower World. Assuming 

III 



112 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN XV 

that they have passed into the next Higher 
Space, they are adapted for an existence 
in which there is room for expression in 
Four Directions instead of only Three, 
and energies proportionate to this higher 
opportunity of expression are theirs. Their 
powers and faculties are indefinitely in- 
creased by the removal of the finite bounds 
which not only enclosed them but cramped 
and hindered their expansion ; now they 
find room for vast development. 

Pursuing the same thought as we rise 
in imagination through the series of Higher 
Spaces, this appears, that in each succes- 
sive ascending Space, all the disabilities 
peculiar to the next below it in order are 
removed, all restrictions special to that 
Lower Space are shaken off. 

Step by step that which existed receives 
a more perfect development, that which 
was latent becomes patent, that which was 
potentiality becomes accomplished, that 
which was in the germ advances towards 
maturity, until at last in the Highest Space 



XV THE OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD I I 3 

of all, where GOD Himself Alone is 
found, all limitations of whatever kind are 
swept away, and that which has been 
growing towards the Highest, receives its 
illimitable, its absolute perfection, in the 
Person of GOD HIMSELF, in Whom 
dwells infinite Power and Knowledge, and 
Wisdom, to Whom be Glory and Dominion 
for ever and ever. 

Thus led, from step to step, from our 
own Space which to our senses and per- 
ceptions is of infinite extent, onwards and 
upwards through Higher Infinities till we 
reach the Absolute, the Infinite Infinity, a 
more true because more real appreciation 
of what GOD is, is presented to us; and 
though we fail, as we must fail, to grasp 
it, seeing that we are but finite creatures, 
a reasonable view of His Attributes, 
Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omni- 
presence, is set before us, and that in such 
a way as to enable us to realise the fact 
that we, at the foot of the scale at present, 
are yet partakers of the Divine Nature, 



114 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xv 

and shall, by His grace, in His Own good 
time, be raised to be with Him, and like 
Him. 

These steps are of great value to us; 
for though they be so great, still they 
afford a series of resting-places for our 
thoughts as they rise up to GOD, supply- 
ing thus a need which all must have expe- 
rienced, who, meditating on the Being of 
GOD, have found no place to dwell on 
between themselves and Him. 

Before leaving this part of our subject 
we must observe that one of the finite lim- 
itations of our Space stands in the way of 
our accepting it, or at least in the way of 
our full appreciation of it. 

We are accustomed to think of individ- 
ual intelligence as being concentrated in 
one point, or at all events in one person 
who occupies a very small portion of our 
Space. This is perhaps inevitable, since 
our unit of intelligence is one man. 

Still, if we wish to grasp the significance 



XV THE OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD II5 

of the conception of the Omniscience of 
GOD, we must divest ourselves of this 
impression. 

Intelligence and consciousness are set 
free in the Higher Regions, they are not 
confined as they are here. And as will 
be seen later, even in our own case the 
impression is hardly a true one. 

Enlarging, therefore, our ideas, we must 
regard GOD, The Intelligence, The Con- 
sciousness, not as though the Mind of 
GOD were located in one place, but rather 
as being where He is, and that is every- 
where. 

We must not allow ourselves to think 
of Him as if there were some centre of 
His Mind, but on the contrary we must 
conceive of It as embracing all things, 
and as having neither centre nor circum- 
ference. 



XVI 

DEFENDING THE USE OF GEOMETRY IN 
THESE SACRED CONNECTIONS 

Here I must interrupt the current of 
our thoughts, to obviate the charge that 
may be made, that it is irreverent to use 
the terms of Geometry in speaking of 
such awful subjects as the Being and 
Attributes of Almighty GOD. 

I am conscious of no irreverence, but 
very humbly seek to use all the means 
which have been given to me, so as to 
gain a greater knowledge of Him Who is 
the Giver. 

Theology — and this is the aim of every 
true system of Theology, to teach us more 
of GOD — is the- Queen of sciences, and 
therefore has the undoubted right to call 

ii6 



1 



XVI DEFENDING THE USE OF GEOMETRY I I 7 

them all to serve her, as servants, not as 
rivals which they can never really be. If 
they can serve their Queen, they take their 
true position, and occupying that, while 
they are honoured, she suffers no loss. 



XVII 

OUR RELATION TO THE DWELLERS IN THE 
HIGHER SPACE 

I NOW come to a point which I post- 
poned. 

I. Speaking of the ministry of the 
Angels, I said that every part of our 
bodies is open on two sides to the inhabi- 
tants of the next Higher Space. With 
this thought we are now famihar. 

While this is true, it is however only 
a part of the truth. It was a preliminary 
statement which must now be supple- 
mented. The distinction between our 
bodies and ourselves must not be for- 
gotten. Our body is not the only con- 
stituent of our being ; that is composed, 
as we are aware, of body, soul, and spirit, 

Ii8 



XVII BODIES OF EXTENSION II 9 

and of these the body is of the least con- 
sideration. 

Would it then be true to say that to the 
eye of an inhabitant of Higher Space we 
ourselves appear as Films ? 

The answer to this question depends 
upon the answer to another, which is this, 
Where are our spirits now ? This is an en- 
quiry which has long waited for an answer. 
Will our theory help us in this matter ? 

I think it will. Indeed the use of the 
word Spirit, if the definition given above 
be true, viz. that a Spirit is in connection 
with, and belongs to Higher Space, affords 
at least a hope that we may find some light 
thrown upon the difiiculty. 

The suggestion is evidently this, that 
even now our Spirits are in the Higher 
Space. 

It is not difficult to find many consider- 
ations which point in this direction. 

Seeing that when man was first formed 
he was made in the Image of GOD, and 
still retains something of that Likeness 



I20 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xvii 

which was originally impressed upon him, 
it is hardly possible to imagine that we 
ourselves appear to the inhabitants of the 
next Higher Space otherwise than in that 
Likeness. Our bodies indeed would ap- 
pear as Films, but since the Divine Image 
was given to the whole man, and not to 
his body only, we are not confined to the 
supposition that that Image appears only 
in our physical presentment ; on the con- 
trary, we must acknowledge that it was 
imprinted no less on our soul and spirit. 
And therefore — since otherwise we should 
have to imagine that the Divine Likeness 
is degraded in the eyes of those in the next 
Higher Space into the appearance of a 
Film — we are led to this, that they see us, 
that is our higher nature, in that Image. 

It is not a perfect image, only too often 
in truth it is distorted most painfully by sin 
or by neglect ; but yet in such wise that 
some remains of past glories may be traced 
in it. In other words, we conclude that 
the higher parts of us are even now in 



XVII BODIES OF EXTENSION 121 

Higher Space, confined it is true to the 
boundaries of our Space by reason of their 
connection with the body, but still outside 
our Space from our point of view. 

On these which we may crudely call our 
characters, the eyes of those who dwell in 
Higher Space are turned, and they per- 
ceive our likeness to GOD in them more 
or less plainly according to the Grace 
which we have received and used. 

This means that we have a real spiritual 
body as well as a physical body. And 
that while one of them, the physical, the 
lower of the two, is confined to our Lower 
Space, the higher is not so confined. That 
is outside our Space. And the relation of 
the Lower body to the Higher is that of a 
section to a solid figure, by which it is 
enclosed, with which it is in the most 
intimate relationship. This relation sub- 
sists until Death snaps the bond which 
unites the two, and, setting free the Higher 
body from the Lower, enables it to depart 
into the region of the Greater Freedom 



122 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xvii 

which is its true inheritance, and enjoy it. 
The personality suffering no diminution, 
but rather, as we have seen becoming 
more stable by reason of its translation 
into the Higher World. 

Thus from the point of view suggested 
by our theory, it appears that we are not 
to regard the soul or spirit as being in any 
sense contained in the body, but rather as 
containing it ; while also we are taught to 
perceive more clearly the relative impor- 
tance of the two. 

These two bodies are for the present 
in large measure mutually dependent, and 
are very closely allied in our present state. 
Only too often the Higher body, i.e. the 
spiritual, is compelled by the Lower body, 
z>. the physical or natural, to take the 
lower part in the determination of ques- 
tions in the interest of the partnership ; to 
postpone its interest to the lower interests, 
to give up its aspirations in favour of 
earthly desires, till the life of the spiritual 
body may become stunted, dwarfed, and 



XVII BODIES OF EXTENSION 1 23 

starved, even reduced to a pitiable state 
of weakness, owing to the rapacity of the 
demands of its coarser associate. 

The words which I have just used to 
describe the relations of what I am regard- 
ing as two actual bodies, the one in our 
Space, the other in the Higher Space, 
using them therefore with perfect literal- 
ness, are words which might most naturally 
be used by any one who wished to describe 
a man on the downward path ; the only 
difference being, though it is an essential 
one, that he would use them metaphori- 
cally, whereas I hold that they describe a 
real state of things in which two actual 
bodies are at issue between themselves. 

This however is no objection. If this 
conception of Higher Space exhibits as 
being in truth realities what have been 
considered as metaphors or illustrations, 
that is to its credit, not the reverse. 

2. A statement such as this must not 
be based upon mere argument. We are 



124 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xvii 

bound to enquire what we may learn from 
Holy Scripture on this point. By this it 
will stand or fall. 

Here we shall have to go into very 
considerable detail. 

S. Paul's great chapter on the other 
world, part of which is familiar to most of 
us as being read at the Burial of the dead, 
I Cor. XV., is the passage to which we 
naturally turn in the first place, and there 
in V. 40, we read, '' There are also celes- 
tial bodies, and bodies terrestrial ; but the 
glory of the celestial is one, and the glory 
of the terrestrial is another." 

Reading these words literally, with the 
thought that is before us in our minds, 
there is an evident agreement between 
the theory and one aspect of S. Paul's 
statement. 

But in such a connection we must go 
farther than this, and find either here or 
elsewhere a stronger corroboration than 
this. 

It must be shewn that the view which I 



XVII BODIES OF EXTENSION 1 25 

have taken is one that receives more than 
an a priori support, based on a desire to 
find support in any place. 

First then we observe that although 
the mention of "celestial bodies" is im- 
mediately followed by a statement about 
the sun, moon, and stars, nobody sup- 
poses that they are the celestial bodies 
of which the Apostle is thinking. In 
V. 41 in which he mentions the sun and 
moon and stars, he is simply taking up 
again the line of v. 39, and, continuing 
his description of the various kinds of 
existence with which we are more or less 
acquainted, points out that there are many 
different ranks or orders in the creation 
of GOD ; his object being to shew that 
apart from revelation it is not hard to 
come to the conclusion that there are 
other ranks and orders beyond what we 
can see. 

Of course, the main point before his 
mind was the doctrine of the resurrection 
of the body; and writing to those whose 



126 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xvii 

faith in the resurrection was still young, 
and beside that, disturbed by some who said 
that there was no resurrection of the dead, 
he wished to make the doctrine as clear as 
possible, whether by illustration, by invok- 
ing the principle of continuity, as well as 
by more open argument, and appeal to the 
Resurrection of Christ Himself. 

Still this object by no means necessa- 
rily interfered with his giving a paren- 
thetical glance at a nearly related subject, 
nor did it prevent him, here any more 
than elsewhere, from setting down a lu- 
minous definition on the related subject 
by the way. I take it that v. 40 is to be 
regarded as such a definition, none the 
less valuable because it is not strictly 
in connection with what went before and 
follows it. 

In order to arrive at a distinct under- 
standing of this verse I shall set down 
all the places where the word translated 
" celestial " is to be found. 

They are these : — 



XVII BODIES OF EXTENSION 1 27 

Matt, xviii. 35. — My Heavenly Father. 

John hi. 12. — If I have told you earthly things, 
and ye believe not, how shall ye believe when I tell 
you of Heavefily things ? 

I Cor. XV. 40. — There are Celestial bodies, and 
bodies terrestrial : but the glory of the Celestial is 
one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 

1 Cor. XV. 48, 49. — As is the earthy, such are they 
that are earthy : and as is the Heavenly, such are they 
also that are Heavenly. And as we have borne the 
image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of 
the Heavenly, 

Eph. i. 3. — The Father Who hath blessed us with 
all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus. 

Eph. ii. 6. — Hath raised us up together, and 
made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus. 

Eph. iii. 10. — That now, unto the principalities 
and powers in Heavenly places, might be made known 
by the Church, the manifold wisdom of GOD. 

Eph. vi. 12. — We wrestle not against flesh and 
blood, but against principahties, against powers, 
against the rulers of Darkness of this world, against 
spiritual wickedness in High places, R. V. Heavenly 
places. 

Phil. ii. 10. — Things in Heaven, and things in 
earth, and things under the earth. 

2 Tim. iv. 18. — Will preserve you unto His 
Heavenly kingdom. 

Heb. iii. i. — Partakers of the Heavenly calling. 



128 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xvii 

Heb. vi. 4. — The Heavenly gift. 

Heb. viii. 5. — The example and shadow of 
Heavenly things. 

Heb. ix. 23. — The Heavenly things. 

Heb. xi. 16. — They desire a better country, that 
is, a Heavenly, 

Heb. xii. 22. — The Heavenly Jerusalem, 

These are, I think, all the passages in 
which this word is to be found. And 
among many other points of interest which 
are nearly related to our subject, this 
stands out at present in the greatest 
prominence, that it will be seen from read- 
ing them that there is no reason whatever 
for taking the words in i Cor. xv. 40 as 
if they stood thus, " There is a terrestrial 
body and there will be celestial bodies." 
For the word " heavenly " is used to qualify 
things and persons existing in the past and 
in the present as well as in the future. 

It will also be observed that there is a 
very close connection between the words 
" spiritual " and " heavenly," especially in 
the contrast which is shewn between what 
is represented by either of them, and what 
is represented by the word earthy. 



XVII BODIES OF EXTENSION 1 29 

I would therefore submit that we should 
understand by this word that we are con- 
sidering " belonging to Higher Space/' 
By doing so we shall lose nothing in any 
of the passages quoted, on the contrary a 
more definite meaning is given to them. 
And in particular one passage, Eph. vi. 12, 
receives a meaning which entirely obviates 
the shock which is occasioned by thinking 
of Spiritual wickedness in Heavenly places. 
Now we may think of this spiritual wicked- 
ness as finding a home in Higher Space 
indeed, but not in the Highest to which 
alone the title Heaven properly belongs; 
a shock which induced our earlier trans- 
lators to substitute " high places " for 
heavenly places in the Authorised Version 
of the passage, though in the Revised 
Version we find the reading "heavenly 
places " transferred from the margin to 
the text. 

[It may be of interest to note here that 
in the Versions of 1380, 1534, 1539 we 
find " Heavenly things " ; in 1557 " Things 



130 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xvii 

which are above"; in 1582 " In the Celes- 
tials"; in 161 1 "In High Places," which 
shews that the translators felt the apparent 
incongruity of the expression, and grad- 
ually edged away from the literal transla- 
tions of older times.*] 

It may be said with truth that, granting 
that these heavenly bodies have present 
existence in the Higher Space, there is 
another explanation which may be given, 
to wit that these are the bodies of the 
Departed of which we have spoken before, 
and it may be felt that this is the natural 
meaning of the words. 

There is however no difficulty in com- 
bining this view with the other, that we 
have even now " heavenly " bodies in the 
Higher Space, the which, though they are 
still connected with our earthly bodies, 
are of the same kind as those of the 
Departed. 

When we consider other passages, this 
seems to be at least a probable supposition. 

The first of these passages comes from 



XVII BODIES OF EXTENSION I3I 

the same chapter i Cor. xv. 44. " There 
is a natural body and there is a spiritual 
body." This standing alone points in the 
same direction as v. 40; but v. 49 has 
a very important bearing on our subject, 
and at first sight seems to exclude the 
view which I am taking, reading as it 
does, "As we have borne the image of 
the earthy, we shall also bear the image 
of the heavenly." 

But there are a great many ancient 
authorities which read, " Let us bear the 
image of the heavenly," so many in fact 
that the Revised Version gives this in the 
margin as a possible if not a probable 
amendment; while Drs. Westcott and 
Hort have adopted this reading in their 
text, giving the ordinary reading only in 
the margin. 

This goes a long way towards my object ; 
for even if the reading is disputed, there is 
no higher authority than that which I have 
quoted ; and at the worst, from my point of 
view, the passage is neutralised so as not 



132 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xvii 

to be of weight against my contention, even 
if it is not to be quoted in my support. 

Further it may be observed that much 
of the criticism which has decHned to read 
" let us bear " is based upon the ground 
that S. Paul's treatment of the subject is 
physical, while "let us bear" is wholly 
ethical. 

This criticism is disarmed when a 
physical or even a quasi-physical meaning 
is found in the exhortation, which as we 
are regarding it, urges us to the develop- 
ment of a spiritual body, a real physical 
body in the Higher Space, real, though 
not the same as our bodies in this Lower 
Space. 

Consider some other passages such as 
these : " Our citizenship is in Heaven." 
'' We are fellow-citizens with the Saints 
and of the household of GOD." " Ye 
are come to the heavenly Jerusalem, and 
to an innumerable company of Angels — 
to the spirits of just men made perfect." 

These passages speak definitely of a real 



J 



XVII BODIES OF EXTENSION 1 33 

and actual relation between the Departed 
and ourselves, such as our Lord described 
when He prayed to His Father, that not 
only they who believed on Him, but also 
those who should believe on Him through 
their word, might be joined together in 
perfect oneness ; that is in the relationship 
to our belief in which we testify, when in 
the Creed we declare that we believe in 
the Communion of Saints. 

3. This then appears from our present 
point of view, that what is true of the 
Departed in the other world is also true 
of us, so far as is possible under our con- 
ditions, which confine us within narrow 
limits, not indeed exclusively to our own 
Space, but to an area at no great distance 
beyond it. That is, that our Higher 
Nature finds its abode in the Higher 
Space, and its expression — impeded indeed 
and embarrassed by the mortal body which 
ties it to the neighbourhood of our Space, 
and infects it with some of its imperfec- 



134 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xvii 

tions, but yet in actual reality subsisting 
in the Higher Space — in the likeness of 
our departed brethren. 

They are free from these embarrass- 
ments, while we are waiting the time of 
freedom, but yet with the necessary limi- 
tations which are imposed on us, what is 
true of them is also true of us. 

Very many of the expressions which are 
in common use, to describe progress in the 
spiritual life are such as lend themselves 
freely to this conception. We speak of the 
growth of our spiritual powers in the same 
terms as we use to describe the growth 
of our bodily and mental powers, and 
though we may do so with the feeling that 
this is only because we have no other terms 
of which we may avail ourselves, it is at 
least possible to suppose that these terms 
are really descriptive of what is actually 
the case, viz., that taken literally they 
do describe a similar process of develop- 
ment in our mental and spiritual bodies 
in the Higher Space. Thus the anthropo- 



XVII BODIES OF EXTENSION I 35 

morphic language of books, dealing with 
the Higher Life, is not due to the poverty 
of our means of expression, but affords the 
only true description of the phenomena 
which go on in connection with us in the 
Higher Space. 

There are three expressions which bear 
on this conception. They speak of us as 
"going from strength to strength," as 
"receiving grace for grace," as "being 
changed from ^lory to glory," and so 
being transformed by steps into the glory 
of the Lord. 

These passages and many others seem 
to point to a still larger development of 
our theory. Namely this, that it is not 
only in Space of Four Directions that our 
Bodies of Extension have existence, but 
rather that as we rise in the scale of Grace 
so also we rise in the scale of Space. 

Remembering that to reach even the 
Highest Space of all there is no need to 
pass through any Lower Space, since each 
Space, however high in order, is in imme- 



136 



THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN 



XVII 



diate apposition to our Space, it appears 
that both we whose physical bodies are 
confined to our region of Space, and the 
Departed who are freed from that Space, 
and raised above it, have Bodies of Exten- 
sion in the Higher Spaces. And that 
growth in grace is, we might say, physically 
represented in the Higher Spaces by the 
appearance and development in them of 
spiritual bodies, absolutely connected in 
our case with our mortal bodies, and so 
tied down to the more immediate neigh- 
bourhood of our Space, and in the case of 
the Departed, restricted to the boundaries 
of the Space in which they have their 
habitation. 

And passing from ourselves and our 
likeness to the Departed, this seems to be 
suggested in regard to the Saints at Rest, 
that as they grow in grace and knowledge 
they are successively set free from the 
limitations of Lower regions, and advanced 
into the Higher Spaces, thus drawing 
nearer to the Highest, and being endowed 



XVII BODIES OF EXTENSION 1 37 

with Higher powers, and more developed 
and higher capabiHties of service. 

Thus, step by step, the Freedom becomes 
greater and greater still, till in the end, 
when the consummation of all things has 
issued in the final rehabilitation of our 
Nature, when we have been made like 
unto the Lord in His Resurrection Body, 
our body having received that redemption 
for which we groan, — having, that is, been 
set free from the limitations and tram- 
mels of this Lower Space — the Greater 
Freedom becomes perfect and indefec- 
tible, and we, reconstituted in the Image 
of GOD as at the first, shall have re- 
ceived the Crown of our then glorified 
human nature, in the presence of our 
Father. 

But this is by the way, and there are 
other passages which bear upon our relation 
to Higher Space which must be quoted. 
Such as these, " Where thy treasure is 
there will thy heart be also." " Set your 
affection on things above, not on things on 



138 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xvii 

the earth for . . . your life is hid with 
Christ in GOD." 

Heart ; affection ; Hfe ; all spoken of as 
having a home in the Higher State, or 
rather, as we should say, in the Higher 
Space. 

The same may be observed of such 
places as these, " Risen with Christ," 
" Partakers of His Resurrection," which 
seem to tell of a real connection with His 
life, the which as we have seen is to be 
thought of as in the Higher Space. 

Here too is a most suggestive expression 
from S. Paul, he speaks of "your members 
which are on the earths This surely tells 
of members of ours which are not on the 
earth, members as real as our earthly 
members, which are in real union with us, 
although in the Higher Space. 

With this may also be taken the thought 
that we are members of Christ, which tells 
of a higher connection with Him, a higher 
likeness to Him than can be found in our 
members which are on the earth. A like- 



XVII BODIES OF EXTENSION 1 39 

ness not only in character, but far more 
true than that, existing and shewing 
itself plainly and unmistakably to those 
who dwell in the Higher Space. With 
this passage may be taken one of those 
which was quoted above, " As is the 
Heavenly such are they that are heavenly,'' 
which describes a similarity not to be per- 
ceived by any of our Lower senses here 
in this world of ours. 

In harmony with all this is the petition 
in the Collect for Ascension Day, in which 
we pray that " like as we do believe our 
Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into 
the heavens, so we may also in heart 
and mind thither ascend, and with Him 
continually dwell"; a petition which is 
in perfect agreement with many other 
passages. 

A considerable number of passages have 
now been brought under consideration, and 
in no case has any violence been done to 
them in using them to support our theory. 

Wild though it may appear at first 



140 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xvii 

sight, there is nothing to condemn it in 
any of the passages quoted, nor have words 
been torn from their context, in order that 
they might be pressed into the service of 
a preconceived idea. 

This then may represent the conclusions 
arrived at. That men of high character, 
of exalted aims, whose thoughts are lofty, 
whose hearts are raised above this world, 
whose desires are elevated, whose affec- 
tion is set on things above, have spiritual 
members in heavenly places, that is real 
Bodies of Extension in Higher Space, 
Higher according to their advancement 
and growth in grace. And on the other 
hand that men whose nature is debased, 
whose aims and thoughts and desires are 
low, who have dishonoured the Likeness of 
GOD in themselves, and become earthly, 
sensual, devilish, do not appear at all in 
the Higher Spaces, but are confined to the 
lower regions of Space. 

Before passing on farther, we may no- 
tice how easily our language lends itself 



XVII BODIES OF EXTENSION I4I 

to the needs of our theory, and even sug- 
gests, by means of common expressions, 
various thoughts connected with it. It is 
tempting to go into details on this point, 
but as this is not essential to our argument 
the temptation must be resisted. 



XVIII 

OUR HIGHER FACULTIES, OR HIGHER SPACE 

SENSES 

The next question which presents itself 
is one regarding our higher capacities. 
If we really have those Bodies of Exten- 
sion in the Higher Spaces, what are the 
powers with which they are endowed, and 
what evidence have we as to the exist- 
ence of those powers ? If it is true in 
any sense that we have a share in the life 
of the Higher Spaces, what is our share 
in it ? 

It must not be forgotten that our Bodies 
of Extension are rigidly confined to the 
immediate neighbourhood of our own 
Space, so that the share they have in the 
life of Higher Space is not as yet a very 

142 



XVIII OUR HIGHER FACULTIES 1 43 

large one. Further that whether of neces- 
sity, or by reason of habit, the mortal body 
being the medium of expression for most 
of our powers, these powers are dependent 
on it in a very large degree for their mani- 
festation ; and its resources of interpre- 
tation, whether by word or deed, are 
inadequate for such a task, which therefore 
can only be inadequately performed. 

Yet of three Higher Space capacities 
at least we know the names, and some- 
thing more. 

Faith is one, Hope is another, and Love 
the third and greatest. 

These are not of the earth earthy, they 
have another origin. Love, the chief of 
them, is even of the highest origin, for 
GOD is Love, and Love comes down to 
us from GOD and from no lower source; 
being imparted to us as one of the marks 
of His Own Likeness. 

Of all our powers it is true that GOD 
has given them to us, but of those that 
find their field of exercise in lower regions, 



144 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xviii 

i.e,, in our world exclusively, we may say, 
without hesitation, that they are lower than 
those that do not confine their activities 
to our Space. 

Take then these three. They certainly 
do not confine themselves to our Space. 
False simulacra of them, bearing their 
names, especially of the Highest, Love, 
are to be found, which are and must be 
confined to lower regions. But they them- 
selves cannot be so confined. 

True Love extends beyond our present ' 
boundaries, embraces those who have 
passed from us, not only their memories, 
and farther than that it reaches, till it 
extends to GOD Himself. 

This is no earth-born power, it is an 
attribute of our Bodies of Extension in the 
Higher Space, although it has its manifes- 
tations in this world of ours, which glow 
with more than earthly lustre. 

We are ourselves accustomed to declare 
of Love that it is eternal, thus we assert 
that it does not belong to temporal things. 



XVIII OUR HIGHER FACULTIES 1 45 

We speak too of Love as being Divine, 
i.e., GOD-like; and GOD Himself, describ- 
ing His Love for us, has not shrunk from 
expressing that highest form of Love in 
terms of the Love of an earthly father for 
his children. Our human affection, there- 
fore, in its purest forms, is of the same 
kind as the Love of GOD Himself, it is 
not of the earth earthy. Much more will 
easily suggest itself in this connection, I 
will therefore leave the matter here. 

The second also of these Higher Space 
capacities which I have mentioned, viz., 
Faith, in like manner finds our bounds 
too strait; it is indeed the foundation 
of our relations with one another, but it 
too has the capacity for embracing the 
Highest, therefore of reaching Him. Faith 
is not earth-born, it is another attribute of 
our Bodies of Extension. 

And Hope, the faculty of which we are 
told distinctly that it entereth into that 
within the veil, cannot find range enough 
in our Space for its full exercise. 



146 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xviii 

These then are faculties or senses, 
which, while to some limited extent they 
manifest themselves in our Low Space, 
are not belonging to it, nor speaking 
accurately to our physical bodies in any 
sense. They cannot find full scope for 
exercise within our limits in this world, 
nor can they be satisfied with what they 
find in it, they reach out beyond our Space 
into regions which otherwise we cannot 
enter, bearing us into a consciousness of 
what we cannot see, and assuring us of 
what would otherwise remain unknown. 

They reveal to us, each in its own way, 
what but for them would still be hidden ; 
and thus it appears that though at present 
these Higher Senses are weighed down 
by our connection with our bodily encum- 
brances, still they have expression in the 
Higher Space, with members suited to 
that expression, likewise in the Higher 
Space. 

As yet they are only in the early 
stages of development, because they are 



XVIII OUR HIGHER FACULTIES 1 47 

not wholly free from the imperfections and 
infirmities which their association with our 
mortal bodies has forced upon them; but 
when the time shall come for us to be set 
free from the burden of the flesh, there 
will be opportunities for their expansion, 
and growth proportional to the Greater 
Freedom which shall be granted to us. 

With these three there should, no doubt, 
be numbered many more of our higher 
aptitudes and capabilities, the which, 
though exercised upon materials which 
are of earth, for want of others, are yet 
not wholly earth-born. These, we may 
conjecture, will find facilities more fitting 
for their employment when we have left 
this world behind. 

But conjecture, pure and simple, how- 
ever interesting, is not now to be pursued ; 
we will pass on to more solid ground. 



XIX 

CONCERNING THE KENOSIS, AND THE EARTH- 
LIFE OF OUR LORD 

Let us now turn to the consideration of 
our Lord's Life on earth, especially the 
earlier part of it. 

From our point of view, that is, having 
our theory in mind, we have to think of 
Him before His Incarnation as dwelling 
in the Highest Space of all, in the Bosom 
of the Father; from thence He came to 
Earth, taking to Himself our human 
nature. 

We will try to obtain independently a 
description of what we should expect to 
be the case, if one from Higher Space 
should come into our world. If this agrees 
with what is written of Him, then so far, 
the theory is justified. 

148 



XIX 



THE KENOSIS 1 49 



It has already been seen that as we 
contemplate in ascending succession the 
series of Higher Spaces, the limitations 
of each Lower Space in order pass away 
in the next Higher Space, until in the 
Highest Space of all, all limitations of 
whatever kind are gone. 

For the solution of our problem we 
shall have to reverse this succession. 

In order that we may be sure of our 
ground we will first consider the simplest 
case, and discuss a hypothetical descent 
from Space of Four Directions into our 
own Space. This is only to reverse the 
process which we went through when we 
were speaking of the condition of the 
Departed. 

A person so descending would lose 
much of freedom, and would find himself 
in a much worse condition than that which 
he occupied before. All would seem 
strange to him. Retaining the memory 
of what he had left behind, he would find 
all his new surroundings terribly cramped. 



150 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xix 

Having been accustomed to the Greater 
Freedom, he would not, Hke us, accept 
his new surroundings as inevitable, but 
knowing the better would miss it sorely. 
Habituated to free extension in Four Direc- 
tions he would feel grievously hampered 
and imprisoned in only Three ; acquainted 
with free Space he would feel himself 
almost unendurably shut in within the 
limits of what he had regarded as a film. 

This gives us an idea of some sort as to 
the method to be followed in solving our 
problem. But we will try to get another 
and more vivid illustration which shall be 
more within our own experience, or at 
least more under our own eyes. 

If by an effort of imagination we could 
regard ourselves as being compelled to live 
and move in a narrow passage between 
two high walls, beyond which nothing 
could reach us, even this would not ade- 
quately describe to us the loss of freedom 
which would be experienced by one who 
came to dwell with us from Space of Four 



XIX THE KENOSIS I5I 

Directions. In order to obtain anything 
like a sufficient conception of his experience 
it would be necessary to bring those walls 
quite close together, till the space between 
them became of infinitesimal width, till in 
fact we were shut up in Space of Two 
Directions, and retaining our conscious- 
ness of powers which we could not 
exercise, were compelled to pass our time 
incarcerated in this absolutely narrow 
Space. 

It is an interesting exercise to endeavour 
to realise what such conditions of existence 
would represent to us, and to try to con- 
stitute the life programme of beings in 
such a state. But it would be beyond my 
present purpose, which is only to suggest 
a means of realising what would be the 
experience of one coming down to us from 
the next Higher Space. Thus much is 
evident that he would lose the Greater 
Freedom which was his. 

Now in our Lord's case we have to 
deal not only with a descent from Space of 



152 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xix 

Four Directions, but from the Highest 
Space of all. 

Though this is not an accurate way of 
putting it, we shall find it convenient to 
think of Him, when coming to dwell with 
man, as renouncing in turn the special 
privileges of each Higher Region, and 
accepting in turn the successive limitations 
of each successive Lower Space, till, reach- 
ing our Space, the last renunciation would 
be made, and the last restriction accepted 
in the narrow limits of our world. 

It is of course only generally that we 
can speak of this, but the impression left 
upon our minds is evidently of this kind, 
that, coming in such a way, and submitting 
Himself to our conditions and our sur- 
roundings. He gave up a position in which 
there were absolutely no restrictions, and 
became subject to very narrow bounds, in 
which His Essential powers were confined 
and circumscribed. 

But this is not all. Not only did He 
come to Earth, but He became a Son of 



XIX 



THE KENOSIS 1 53 



Man. He took our nature upon Him in 
the womb of the Blessed Virgin, of her 
substance. So that it was not only the 
conditions of our Space that he accepted 
but also the conditions of our life. There 
is, of course, a great distinction between 
the two. 

Entering upon our life He did not take 
it in its mature development, but began it 
as we begin it in His mother's womb. 
Thus intimating that He had condescended 
to submit Himself to all the necessary 
infirmities of our life. 

This clears the way for the attempt to 
describe what is to be expected, from our 
point of view, to be the course of His life. 

Born as an infant, we should expect to 
find Him like other infants, subject to all 
the necessary conditions of infant life, its 
ignorance, its weakness, its unconsciousness 
of future development, its happy simplicity. 
We should not expect to find Him a 
prodigy, but a purely typical child, with all 
the peculiarly winning charm with which 



154 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xix 

all true children are invested perhaps more 
marked than in any other, since that charm 
is derived from the power which infants 
have of shewing two characteristics of 
Higher Space, Trustfulness and Love, the 
which with Him, Whose origin was the 
Highest Space of all, were even more 
natural than in the case of any other child. 
We should also expect that the innocence 
of childhood would in His Case be more 
noticeable than in the case of any other 
infant. 

In the infant stage of man's life, what- 
ever capacities, whatever faculti'es belong 
to the individual, time is needed before the 
body or the mind is able to express them. 
All powers have to train or mould or form 
their agent before they can be exhibited. 
Speaking in a general way the greater are 
the powers latent within the child, the 
longer is this stage or period of formation. 

We should therefore expect that the 
early years of our Lord would be marked 
not by any precocious signs of what should 



XIX THE KENOSIS 1 55 

be, but by a trustful and loving simplicity, 
in which by reason of the perfection of His 
exalted Nature, He would shew a pure and 
holy character, such as that of Adam in the 
days of his innocency, since sin is not a 
necessary infirmity of man. 

During this holy Childhood, while the 
Higher Faculties, both those which He 
had in common with other children, and 
those which belonged to Himself Alone, 
were gradually accommodating their sur- 
roundings to themselves, and themselves to 
their surroundings, some faint perception, 
such as are granted to gifted children, 
and incline them to one form of active life 
rather than another, would begin to dawn 
on Him ; and as time passed, would become 
more clear, till He would recognise that 
He was set apart from others for a special 
work. 

Not all at once would this consciousness 
deepen into definite conviction ; for, as we 
have seen, time is required for the human 
agent or instrument to become adapted to 



156 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xix 

the comprehension and the service of the 
Higher Faculties ; or in other words for 
the Faculties of Higher Space to train the 
lower parts of our nature so as to be able 
to express themselves through them. But 
we should expect that the day would come 
when the habitual study of the Scriptures, 
enjoined on every Jewish boy, and the 
constant conversation which went on 
around Him concerning the Law and the 
Prophets, which spoke of Him, would 
gradually lead Him to recognise Himself 
described in the Prophetical Books, and so 
to recognise His Mission. 

Yet after this knowledge had been 
gained in its earliest and most elementary 
form. His powers would require longer 
time for growth before they attained their 
full development, or, more accurately speak- 
ing, before they could complete the 
education of their human agent. For 
indeed the very greatness of those powers 
would render this more difficult, as the 
cramping force of the surroundings of our 



XIX 



THE KENOSIS 1 57 



Lower Space would be more felt in pro- 
portion to the greatness of the capacities 
which struggled in it for their manifesta- 
tion. 

The time would come at last when the 
powers of Higher Space would have 
become, so to speak, acclimatised, and 
when the human body would be fitted 
for their use. And then we should expect 
to find that in Him would be exhibited not 
only the use of these powers at His will, 
but also the most acute, the Highest sus- 
ceptibilities, the most perfect love, the 
truest, tenderest sympathy, in Him most 
natural, — and because most natural, most 
perfect, — because of His perfect insight 
and penetration. 

Mighty Works, the employment of His 
power in obedience to His sympathy and 
love, would be of course ; and mighty 
words, such as would sway the hearts of 
multitudes would accompany them. 

But yet since both were prompted by a 
nature far above the nature of mankind, 



158 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xix 

we should expect to find that in the case 
of many who saw and heard, the effect 
would be but transient. Such as had 
not received the training of their Higher 
aptitudes would not be able to grasp what 
was so far above them, nor in a moment 
to learn what it had cost Him many long 
years to understand. And more, that they 
would be the last to recognise and acknowl- 
edge Him, who definitely declined a stand- 
ard higher than their own. 

Not only would the effect of His teaching 
on them be transient, but farther the strain 
to which it called them would raise feel- 
ings of jealousy in some of them, of fierce 
resentment in others, till He, far in advance 
of His own age, would share with others, 
who have been pioneers of progress, a mar- 
tyrdom at the hands of exasperated would- 
be rivals. 

All this agrees so perfectly with what 
we know of the life of Jesus that I have 
hesitated as to whether it should be allowed 
to stand. But since so far as my conscious- 



XIX THE KENOSIS 1 59 

ness is concerned, I have simply set down 
what has been suggested by our theory, I 
have not cut it out ; for even if the force 
of an independent construction be denied 
to it, still it may be felt that as an explana- 
tion of some difficulties concerning our 
Lord s life on Earth, and especially of the 
Kenosis, it gives a broad and not unrea- 
sonable account of them from the point on 
which we stand, and also affords a reason 
for what we have observed or learnt in 
the narrative of that Life which we pos- 
sess. 

We will pursue the enquiry farther. It 
seems to me that the foregoing description 
of our Lord's descent from the Highest 
Space, and His renunciation of the freedom 
of that Space, with all that is signified by 
that freedom, answers exactly to S. Paul's 
phrase, " He emptied Himself of His 
glory," and gives an intelligible account of 
what it means. 

And again, that His own expression 
that He was ''straitened" till the hour 



l6o THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xix 

of His death should come, receives a com- 
plete and most remarkable elucidation 
under the description of His acceptance of 
the restrictions of Lower Space. 

And yet again that this acceptance of 
our disabilities is described most naturally 
in these words, " Though He was rich, for 
our sakes He became poor." 

Our theory, moreover, explains what 
some, at least, have found it very difficult 
to understand about His growth in Child- 
hood, and His ignorance as to Who and 
What He was, until that day in the Temple 
when He learnt for the first time clearly 
from whence He came and Who His 
Father was. 

It tells us too, comprehensibly, how for 
a time He was lower than the Angels, 
since for a time He dwelt in a Lower 
Space than they. 

Some light is also thrown upon the 
mystery of the Temptation in the Wilder- 
ness, in which the words, " If Thou be the 
Son of GOD " at least suggest that the 



XIX THE KENOSIS l6l 

Devil did not know that He was truly 
such. 

For, recalling the fact that to pass from 
the Highest Space to ours there is no need 
to traverse any intermediate Space, the 
descent from the Bosom of the Father 
would have taken place in a region to 
which the Devil had no access ; he there- 
fore could not be cognisant of it, nor 
could he absolutely know Who it was that 
he addressed. The Voice from Heaven 
he would have heard, proclaiming, '' This 
is My beloved Son," the descent of the 
Holy Ghost he would have seen, the purity 
of the perfect Childhood must have been a 
constant source of wonderment to him, but 
what was the meaning of these manifesta- 
tions we may well suppose he did not 
recognise ; something great no doubt, but 
how great as yet he did not know. 



XX 

CONCERNING THE RISEN BODY OF OUR 
LORD 

Taking up the story of the Life after 
the Resurrection, we have what is an 
obvious understanding of the appearances 
and disappearances of our Lord. 

For having died as man, as man the 
unseen path, the Fourth Direction, which 
leads to Higher Space, was opened to 
Him. He was as man enabled to see and 
use that path. 

Taking again His Body, never to lay It 
aside again. He did not forfeit that which 
had been gained, but still retained the 
power of travelling along that path, which 
is unseen by us. His Body, having entered 
and returned from the grave, was freed 

162 



XX THE RISEN BODY OF OUR LORD 1 63 

from all its imperfections, freed from the 
bonds which had confined It to our 
Space. 

Thus there is no difficulty in perceiving 
how it was that at Emmaus He vanished 
out of the sight of the two Disciples. He 
simply passed along the unseen path into 
the Higher Space, where their eyes could 
not follow Him. 

There is no reason or even justification 
for supposing anything about a so-called 
spiritual body, with powers of condensing 
itself at one time and at another of becom- 
ing etherialised ; there is in truth no room 
for such a supposition. The Body was a 
real human body, tangible, solid, able to 
receive both meat and drink, and to such 
a body performances such as these are, so 
far as our experience of human bodies, by 
this time a somewhat long experience, 
entirely inconceivable. 

So with regard to His appearance on the 
same evening, and on that day week ; there 
is no call to speak of entering the room 



164 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN XX 

through a closed door, in virtue of an in- 
definable property with which His Risen 
Body has been conjecturally invested. He 
simply passed from that spot in the Higher 
Space which adjoined the spot in the 
room which He wished to occupy, and so 
coming from the Unseen, He stood in the 
midst of His Disciples, finding no obstacle 
of any kind before Him. And in like 
manner He departed from them. 



XXI 

CONCERNING THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD 

When the time came for the departure 
of the Lord from the Earth He did not 
leave His Disciples as at other times after 
His Resurrection, but in such a way as 
that it should be clear to them that His 
departure was definite ; and that they 
should see Him no more among them as 
before. Therefore having taken them 
with Him to Mount Olivet, He rose from 
the Earth for a certain distance, not so far 
as to disappear gradually, but apparently 
only a short way, and then a cloud veiled 
Him from their sight, and under cover of 
the cloud He passed into the Higher 
Space, to appear on earth no more. While 
from the Higher Space two '' men " came 

165 



1 66 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xxi 

forth, fulfilled their message to the Disci- 
ples, and departed as they had come, enter- 
ing into the Higher Space again. 

Before quitting this subject, we may 
note that the words of our Lord, " I am 
not yet ascended to My Father," become 
invested with a plain meaning. Though 
He had entered into the Higher Space, 
He had not yet ascended into the Highest 
Space, that return to where He was be- 
fore had not then taken place. Up to this 
time this has been a difficulty to my mind 
at least, now that difficulty is removed. 



XXII 

CONCERNING OUR OWN GROWTH IN GRACE 

The train of thought which has occu- 
pied us during this last discussion has its 
value in another way. It helps to 'explain 
how it is that our growth in grace is 
apparently so slow. 

In order that we may advance in the 
way of holiness, it is essential that the 
Holy Spirit should make His abode in us. 

Now we have seen that in the case 
of our Lord, when He, Divine, took to 
Himself, the Manhood, even though the 
Godhead and the Manhood became one 
Person, time was needed for growth and de- 
velopment, for the moulding, forming, and 
adapting the lower elements of the Lower 
Space to the requirements of the Higher 

167 



1 68 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xxii 

elements, the higher members in the 
Higher Space, and this although with our 
nature He took only the necessary imper- 
fections and infirmities of it. 

In our case there is a very essential 
difference. We are by reason of our fallen 
nature subject to sin, our nature is spoilt by 
sin. The human and the Divine in our 
case are not so perfectly joined together as 
they were in His. With us there is much 
to be undone as well as much to be done 
before we can grow in grace as we desire. 
For this time is necessary. The lower 
elements must not only be trained by the 
Divine power, but they must also learn 
subjection. Not only must the higher 
faculties be matured, but the resistance of 
the lower and material elements must be 
overcome. 

While then we pray for greater advance- 
ment and more rapid progress, we need 
not become impatient or disappointed 
by reason of the apparent slowness of the 
answer to our prayers ; since the obstacles 



XXII OUR OWN GROWTH IN GRACE 1 69 

are very many, and the impediments very 
great in the way of our progress in the 
Higher Life. 

To be advanced from glory to glory, 
that is, from Space to Space, is no light 
matter ; indeed, it is a matter for deep 
thankfulness that such a thing is possible 
at all. That GOD should condescend to 
dwell with us and in us, amid such terribly 
unfavourable surroundings, and use His 
Power in our behalf with such never-failing 
patience, encouraging and advancing us 
from Space to Space, and ministering to 
our growth in each Space as we reach it, 
transforming us in this way into a nearer 
likeness to our Lord, this calls for grati- 
tude, and not impatience, though since 
the work is so infinitely great, it necessarily 
seems to be slow in progress. 



XXIII 

SUMMARY 

I NOW return to the general view of our 
subject, which I have treated with as much 
regard to brevity as was compatible with 
my desire to give a broad view of the most 
important points connected with it. 

We began by stating as a proposition, 
that it is in Higher Space that we are to 
look for the key to the understanding of 
the Unseen. Then taking this as a work- 
ing hypothesis, and assuming that the 
Higher Space exists not only in imagina- 
tion, but as an actual reality, we proceeded 
to consider on this basis a variety of what 
are commonly called " spiritual " subjects. 

These, we have seen, may be treated 

from an almost physical point of view, and 

that intelligibly. 

170 



XXIII SUMMARYc I7I 

On this hypothesis we have been able 
to see how the future life and the present 
life are in close connection with each other, 
how a real continuity exists between them. 
The other life being no pale reflection of 
our present life ; the other world no misty 
cloudland, peopled by shadows which are 
only vaguely to be regarded as enjoying 
happiness in a negative, and to us unsat- 
isfying sense. We have seen something at 
all events of conditions which are real to 
our understanding, and most desirable to 
our minds, surpassing in every respect the 
very best that earth can give. 

We have learnt that the Unseen is not 
invisible, but only out of sight ; and that, 
not owing to an immensity of distance, but 
because of the necessary relations between 
our Space and Higher Space. 

We have found that our hypothesis, 
with the principles that flow directly from 
it has not only spoken to us of the state 
of the Departed, but has also given us a 
definition of the words " spirit " and 



172 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xxiii 

" spiritual " which has dispelled the mist 
by which so many of the most beautiful 
ideas connected with our Higher Nature 
have been obscured ; and in doing so has 
shewn us what is almost a physical truth 
concerning our souls, our Spirits, and their 
relation in the communion of Saints with 
those who have gone before. 

With humble reverence approaching 
the thought of GOD Himself, we have 
been able to learn something intelligible 
about His Nature, His Being, and His 
attributes, for we have found a clue to the 
comprehension of the manner of His 
Omnipotence, His Omniscience, His Om- 
nipresence. 

We have seen how in this light the 
Life of our Lord Jesus Christ has become 
clearer to our understanding, and the same 
argument has yielded results concerning 
the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. 

The mystery of the appearances and 
disappearances of our Lord is seen to be 
most plain ; and not only so but at the 



1 



XXIII 



SUMMARY 173 



same time we are able to see how in 
accordance with His promise, He, though 
unseen, is present with us and in the midst 
of us when we are met together in His 
Name. 

The ministry of the Angels has become 
plain to our apprehension, for we have 
found how they, unseen, may yet assist us 
and bear us in their hands. And many 
other thoughts of a like nature have sug- 
gested themselves. 

Many passages have been quoted from 
the Bible, many more might easily have 
been quoted which may be fairly claimed 
as supporting our contention. While, 
perhaps, a more important point, I have 
not found any places which are in opposi- 
tion to it. 

This summary deals with a considerable 
number of subjects which are seen to be 
susceptible of treatment from one single 
point of view ; it shews them not as isolated 
phenomena, but as belonging to one group ; 
and it may be claimed for a theory which 



174 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xxiii 

combines so many diverse points, that it is 
worthy of consideration. 

It is true that all depends on what is 
admittedly an unknown direction. But 
this is not to be wondered at, nor is the 
theory to be rejected on this account. For 
it is the Unknown that we have been 
studying. And at least this must be 
acknowledged that when the one unknown 
is simply the direction of a line, of which 
mathematical science can tell us much, a 
line which has actually been visualised by 
some persons, we have been brought from 
a situation of very great and even absolute 
complexity into a position of comparative 
simplicity. 



XXIV 

A GENEALOGY OF THE THEORY 

There is another consideration of an 
entirely different kind which appears to me 
to be of interest in this investigation. I 
am aware that in the case of many others 
it will not be regarded as adding any 
weight to the preceding, but for all that I 
will produce it. It is this that the concep- 
tion which has been discussed is not by 
any means a new one, but on the contrary 
a very old one indeed. 

Without pretending to an intimate 
acquaintance with the doctrines of those 
whom I shall quote, it still is possible to 
say that one can recognise in them the fact 
that under one form or other our theory 
has been held continuously for many ages. 

175 



176 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN Xxiv 

It has appeared in many different disguises, 
and it would seem in many cases at least 
to have been held by the majority in igno- 
rance of the manner of its truth. 

Be this as it may the first principle of 
our theory is to be traced in many systems 
of religion and philosophy, viz. that outside 
the limits of our Space there are other 
Spaces beyond the reach of our ordinary 
experience, and that these Spaces are in- 
habited. 

We will trace this genealogy backwards. 
Beginning with the present day Theoso- 
phists teach that there are seven planes of 
existence, seven aspects of a man's nature. 
Some of these parts of his nature may be 
and generally are latent, but by the use 
of proper means he may be educated till 
they become manifest in various forms of 
activity. And apparently on the Higher 
Planes, or some of them, a man may be 
in communication with higher natures than 
those of earth. 

This strongly resembles what has been 



XXIV A GENEALOGY OF THE THEORY 1 77 

said above as to our Bodies of Extension 
in the Higher Space, and this is what con- 
stitutes the special interest of their teaching 
on this point. 

It is not necessary to follow their doc- 
trine farther, but we may note that they 
claim, and have the right to claim, the 
weight of ancient tradition in favour of 
their teaching, for they declare that they 
have received it from a far antiquity, from 
the old students of hidden things — the 
Magi and the Astrologers. 

The Spiritists speak of circles in the 
other world, inhabited by spirits of various 
grades and various powers, these spirits 
being either those of the Departed, or of 
Angelic or Diabolic nature. 

That Spiritists claim to be able to con- 
trol these spirits or some of them, is not 
now to our purpose. I simply quote their 
doctrine because, apart from the use they 
make of it, it agrees with what has been 
said above, as to the Higher Spaces and 
their inhabitants. 



178 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xxiv 

Spiritists do not claim that they have 
invented or discovered this truth, but state, 
and are right in stating, that they have in- 
herited it from older ages. 

Going farther back in point of time, we 
find the same kind of belief among occult- 
ists of all sorts, and they inherited it from 
their teachers. 

This belief must have been very strong 
indeed, and its attractions must have been 
very great. For in the Dark Ages it was 
held by very many in spite of the ban of 
the Church under which all who dared to 
profess it lay, in spite too of the dangers 
by which its adherents were threatened 
both from the religious and the civil 
powers. 

In spite of all these dangers the truth 
survived ; and perhaps more wonderful 
still, it survived in spite of the errors which 
gathered round it, in spite too of the dis- 
credit which was transferred to it from 
those who, holding it in error, associated 
it with magic and sorcery. 






XXIV A GENEALOGY OF THE THEORY 1 79 

Again, going farther back, we find that 
the Gnostics, still holding the truth in 
error, taught it in a form which apparently 
was purer than that adopted by their suc- 
cessors. 

They spoke of ^ons of different de- 
grees, dwelling in heavens of higher or 
lower rank, which step by step led their 
thoughts upwards towards the Pleroma, 
where, as they taught, GOD dwells in un- 
approachable light. The truth was there, 
however much disguised, however little 
understood, however grievously admixed 
with error. 

The Gnostics did not claim that they 
had found out this truth. They adopted 
and adapted it from yet earlier systems of 
magic and philosophy, interweaving wdth 
what they drew from them some points 
which they derived from Christianity. 

Thus then we have an almost if not 
quite, unbroken chain of tradition, carrying 
us back to very early times. And it does 
not call for any very large amount of 



l8o THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xxiv 

imagination, if we venture to trace the 
belief even farther back through the ma- 
gicians and sorcerers of the East, the 
Persians and Chaldaeans, probably the suc- 
cessors of Balaam who, as we know, lived 
towards the end of his life in the East, 
though at an earlier period, if we may 
believe the Jewish legends, he was asso- 
ciated, as their chief, with the magicians 
of Ancient Egypt, men who, according to 
the testimony of the Sacred records, were 
certainly adepts in strange accomplish- 
ments. 

It seems almost incredible that at this 
very early period of history men should be 
able to discover a truth like this. Far 
more incredible than that it was handed 
down from a far earlier time. 

The suggestion seems to be this, that 
Shem, who is described in Jewish records 
as a man of great piety and learning, re- 
ceived the knowledge of it before the 
Flood, and that it was a relic of the knowl- 
edge of Adam himself, from whom, by only 



XXIV A GENEALOGY OF THE THEORY l8l 

two transmissions, Shem could have re- 
ceived it. If this were so, it is easy to see 
how from him it would spread, and like 
the religion which he taught to his de- 
scendants, become deteriorated as time 
went on. 

But however this may be, and of course 
the last steps are almost pure conjecture, 
the fact remains that we can find some- 
thing very like the doctrine of Higher 
Space very far back in ancient history. 

Another part of our theory also receives 
the support of Antiquity in the same way 
and through the same channels, viz., that 
which speaks of our members in the Higher 
Space, our Bodies of Extension. 

It will be evident that I am speaking of 
what is called the " Astral body " of which 
occultists of whatever denomination tell us. 
In this case we may omit the intervening 
stages, and recognise in the old records of 
the Egyptians the same belief in another 
form. They taught that in what we know 
as ''soul" there are seven constituents. 



1 82 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xxiv 

with different properties. This is their 
method of describing what we have called 
Bodies of Extension in the Higher Space. 

As regards the theory itself there is no 
lack of support in what are often called 
superstitions, but may more truly be recog- 
nised as debased beliefs. 

Such are the legends of incubi and 
succubi, and the phenomena known as 
cases of obsession, which point to inter- 
ference with the spiritual side of man by 
beings not belonging to our Space; the 
which we find authenticated in both the 
Old and New Testaments whenever we 
read of the possession of men by evil 
spirits. 

Without going into details it is enough 
to add to this that all the bewildering array 
of spells and incantations of every kind, 
wherever met with, are suggestions that 
man has a spiritual side on which he may 
be reached by unseen agencies, that are 
under the control of those who know how 
to compel their services. 



XXIV A GENEALOGY OF THE THEORY 1 83 

To this may also possibly be referred 
the powers of hypnotism, mesmerism, and 
the like. 

Once more, I will allude to the Moslem 
belief in a plurality of heavens, which are 
described in the most realistic terms, and 
seemi to find countenance in what S. Paul 
says about his experiences in the Third 
Heaven, to which he tells us he was caught 
up, whether in the body or out of the body 
he could not tell, where he saw things that 
could not be described by the tongue of 
man, since the speech of Lower Space 
cannot put into words what passes in the 
Higher Space. 

The Indian belief in the existence of 
many orders of heavens and hells may also 
be quoted. 

Many more witnesses might easily be 
called who would speak in language which 
our theory enables us to understand upon 
this subject, but the above may suffice for 
my present purpose which is to shew that 
amid much error, much ignorance, much 



184 THE WORLD OF THE UNSEEN xxiv 

superstition, the truth has been preserved 
by its own vitality, the which if it were not 
so powerful must have been crushed out 
by the hands through which it has passed. 
Not only has it not been crushed out, 
but on the contrary it has given something 
of its own life to the systems which have 
received it, however much disguised, under 
however grotesque forms, in East and 
West alike ; and it may be fairly conjec- 
tured that it is in virtue of this life that 
the Non-Christian religions of the world 
maintain their wonderful ascendency, in a 
way that would not only be surprising but 
impossible unless they had some salt of 
truth to preserve them and their beliefs. 



THE END 



THE UNSEEN UNIVERSE, 

OR 

PHYSICAL SPECULATIONS ON A FUTURE STATE. 

BY 

Professor BALFOUR STEWART, F.R.S., 

AND 

Professor P. G. TAIT, M.A. 
127no, Cloth, $1.25. 



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their argument will also immediately commend itself to the con- 
sideration of the candid; they never attempt to shirk a dif- 
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"This book is one which well deserves the attention of 
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istence." — Guardian. 



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